It was easy to miss. Buried near the bottom of page 2 in Monday's Virginian-Pilot was a five-paragraph story headlined, “Officials: Va Beach police fatally shoot man during domestic dispute.”

Pay attention, because the volatile situation at the heart of this news report is repeated night after night in big cities and small towns all across America, while the rest of us sleep peacefully in our beds. 

According to the report, police were summoned to a “violent domestic situation” on Sunday morning at 4:30 in the 300 block of Garrison Place. Once there they encountered a man with “bladed weapons” - I’m guessing these were knives or machetes, although I suppose they could have been swords. Naturally, the man refused to drop the sharp objects when ordered to, hastening his death.

The guy then grabbed a woman - again, I’m guessing this was his wife or girlfriend, probably the person who had called the police - dragged her into another room and barricaded the door. The woman was screaming for help so the police officers broke down the door, found the victim badly injured and they shot the man.

The woman is in the hospital.

We’ve all seen videos of police officers behaving badly - the exception, not the rule - and those rogue officers need to be removed from service and punished. But the explosive situation in this Virginia Beach home is far more commonplace:  A woman was being menaced by a violent lover or husband and she called the police to save her life.

It’s only when the psycho refuses to let her go that the police are forced to fire their weapons.

Ask any cop about the most unpredictable and dangerous calls they get and they’ll tell you those are domestic disputes. As the officers approach the situation they have no idea what sort of hellscape they’re entering. 

The only thing they know is that someone is in peril and needs their help. 

An April 2018 a USA Today story headlined, “Domestic Abusers. Dangerous for Women - And Lethal for Cops” reported that these calls are the most deadly - for police.

“In 2017, more officers were shot responding to domestic violence than any other type of firearm-related fatality, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. From 1988 to 2016, 136 officers were killed while responding to domestic disturbances such as family arguments, FBI data show. By comparison, 80 were killed during a drug-related arrest in the same period.”

The Beach police officers who drove in the dark Sunday morning to answer the call, were not hurt. They have families and wives or girlfriends who want them home when their shift is over. They have kids who need and love them. They have friends and neighbors.

Defund the police? Heck no. They’re what stands between predators and the women and children they beat, rape and kill.