When life suddenly skirts with its “or death” cousin, you want people like David Washington charging in to help.

Life became complicated for a man at Holiday Apartments as he was standing at his refrigerator.

A man in the apartment above the victim’s was shooting indiscriminately at the floor ultimately shooting the unexpected victim.

When police arrived, the victim was bleeding profusely from the wound in his arm.

Natchez police officer David Washington’s quick work to put a tourniquet on the arm to slow bleeding likely saved the man’s life.

The City of Natchez recognized Washington this week, and rightfully so.

Criticizing law enforcement is easy — and sometimes merited when they fall short of obvious marks — but we also need to say “thanks” when they do a good job as well.

For his part, during the ceremony to honor his life-saving effort, Washington shrugged off the compliments saying that he was simply doing, “What any one of our officers would have done. … It is part of our training. I thank God I was there for that night, at that time; let God have all the glory, not me.”

Washington and those like him who in the presence of danger run toward it rather than flee and later downplay their actions are true heroes, worthy of our appreciation.

Our thanks goes to officer Washington and the dozens of other law enforcement personnel who put their lives on the line day and night to help protect us.