While the rest of us work, play, sleep, study in class, eat dinner with our families or work out at the gym; while we proceed with our daily lives – cautious, amid Colorado’s crime wave but still tending to our many pursuits – our police are serving us as sentinels for our safety.

They patrol our streets and answer emergency calls at all hours and under all conditions; they respond to crime reports from victims and chase down leads in criminal investigations; they build bonds with school kids and their community as resource officers assigned to K-12 campuses.

Often enough, they are called upon to risk all in keeping us as secure as possible in an often-perilous world. That’s what happened earlier this week when a Lakewood cop took a hit from a crazed shooter on a rampage and, while wounded, returned fire and ended the mayhem.

By all accounts, the quick and selfless actions of the Lakewood Police Department’s Agent Ashley Ferris amounted to no less than movie-caliber heroics. It was chilling yet inspiring.

Police say Lyndon McLeod already had killed five people and injured two others during an hourlong onslaught across the metro area on Monday by the time of his showdown with Ferris. As reported by The Gazette, Ferris encountered the shooter in Lakewood’s Belmar shopping district and ordered him to drop his weapon. He ignored her commands and shot her in the abdomen. While down, Ferris fired back and struck the shooter, who died at the scene. Ferris underwent surgery for her wound and is now recovering in the hospital.

On Wednesday, Lakewood police said in a statement released to the press, “If not for the heroic efforts of Agent Ferris and other law enforcement, this incredibly violent tragedy could have been even worse.”

No doubt. Ferris and the thousands of law enforcement officers who serve their communities throughout the Denver metro area and across Colorado deserve our thanks and our prayers.

Denver Gazette editorial board