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Simply by their title, law enforcement officers are sworn to uphold the law. Sometimes that leads them to encounter dangerous situations where their lives are on the line in an effort to make an arrest.

But first and foremost, these men and women who wear a uniform and a badge are peacekeepers. That role was apparent in the early morning hours of June 9, 2025 when deputies with the Hertford County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to the North Carolina Wildlife Commission’s Boat Landing in Tunis due to a male with suicidal thoughts.

According to Hertford County Sheriff Dexter Hayes, Sgt. Lashaunna Godwin, Deputy Stephani Witzigman, and Deputy Holden Brickhouse immediately responded to the call for service. While they were en route to Tunis, the male subject advised Hertford County Communications that he had a firearm and was thinking of ending his life. The telecommunicator relayed this information to the responding deputies so they were aware and could make a safe approach to the area.

Upon arrival, deputies located the male subject standing on the end of the pier of the boat landing, holding what they believed to be a shotgun in his hand. Deputies attempted to start a conversation with the male, but Hayes said the man was initially hesitant to open up.

As the conversation continued, Hayes said the man began to talk with the deputies about his problems and why he was there. Within a short amount of time, the deputies – putting all those hours of training to good use – convinced the man to lay his firearm down and seek the assistance offered by these peacekeepers. He was transported to a medical facility for evaluation and hopefully on the path to a better life.

Hayes noted that everyone dealing with this call played a critical role in preventing this man from ending his life. He said Hertford County Communications was able to obtain the pertinent information from the man before the deputies arrived, and the deputies were able to use their training and experience along with that information to make a safe and tactical approach. Hertford County EMS also responded in case of any medical emergency.

The Sheriff praised the professionalism and dedication showed by his deputies on scene.

“This scenario could have gone in so many bad directions, but the deputies relied on their training to stay calm and get this person the help that was immediately needed,” Hayes said in a post on the Hertford County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page. “The safety of every single person will always be a priority of the Hertford County Sheriff’s Office.”

It’s comforting to know that we have such peacekeepers here at work in the Roanoke-Chowan area.

While these officers are highly trained and skilled to act as they did last week, what can average folks like you and me do to help those chasing their inner demons and pondering suicide?

Silent screams precede suicide. Are our ears trained to hear those screams?

Without some way of conveying why a person chooses this path, taking one’s life is typically linked to one of three things: guilt about the past, resentment about blocked goals in the present, or anxiety about the future.

As a young reporter back in 1992, my first story about suicide involved former Ahoskie High School standout athlete Bobby Lee Futrell. On May 31, 1992, Futrell took his own life at his Tampa, Florida home following an alleged domestic argument.

I couldn’t wrap my head around why a young man that had reached the highest professional level in his sport chose to end his life? Futrell, a 1980 AHS grad, helped lead the Cougars to the 1979 State 3A championship game. He went on to a four-year football career at Elizabeth City State University before signing with the Michigan Panthers of the United States Football League. Following the collapse of the USFL, Futrell was signed as a free agent by the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He remained with the Bucs until the 1990 season.

I was hoping to never again have to write about a suicide, but that wish didn’t come true.

On the heels of a tornado ripping through the Northampton-Hertford County area on the afternoon of July 3, 1996, a “storm” of a much different nature took its toll on a simple man whose life was evidently much more complex than those close to him ever imagined.

While people were cleaning up the debris left in the aftermath of that twister, I was left sorting through huge chunks of emotion trying to figure out why Hertford County High School football coach Carl Brock committed suicide that same day. Why would one of the best young football coaches (age 41 at the time of his death) in the state choose to end his life?

It appeared, at least through my rose-colored glasses, that Carl had everything to live for. He had a successful six-year career at HCHS and was departing in the summer of 1996 to become the new football head coach at East Wake High School.

Through all the weekly conversations we had – most dealing with football, but there were some deep discussions about life – I can’t recall any that would have led me to think he was on the verge of suicide. However, what I still kick myself over nearly 30 years later is was I really listening? Perhaps I should have been more attentive; perhaps I could have heard his silent scream or felt the bumps he was experiencing along life’s highway.

For those contemplating suicide, reach out to your friends and/or loved ones and let them hear your pain. Let them hear your silent scream. If you are alone in life and need help sorting through emotional distress, call 988 (the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline).

I’ll leave you with this poem – If I Had Known – by Mary Carolyn Davies:

“If I had known what trouble you were bearing;

What griefs were in the silence of your face;

I would have been more gentle and more caring,

And tried to give you gladness for a space.

I would have brought more warmth into the place,

If I had known.”

Cal Bryant is the Editor of Roanoke-Chowan Publications. Contact him at cal.bryant@r-cnews.com or at 252-332-7207.