Hale advised Rooks of the situation and when he stepped inside he could see the man cutting himself. “I told him to drop the knife.”

The man, already bloody from cutting himself, paused, looked up and told Rooks to shoot him. The man's pause, the lieutenant said, was “the opportunity to get him subdued.”

That's when Rooks deployed his Taser and the man was transported to a hospital for treatment.

Rooks hasn't had the opportunity to visit with the man, but plans to do so once he comes back on shift.

This was not the first time Rooks intervened to save someone for being severely injured. As a correctional officer in Virginia in 1994, he received a commendation for breaking up a fight where one inmate was attempting to stab another. “I stepped in between them and was able to disarm him.”

Rooks, who has received a commendation from Sheriff Wes Tripp for the November 17 matter, said getting the man in the barn subdued was a matter of instinct. “It's knowing you need to do something to help these individuals to preserve life.”

Rooks, a Roanoke Rapids native and Northwest Halifax High School graduate, has served 16 years in law enforcement and before that was a nine-year veteran of the Virginia Department of Corrections. He served three years in the Army and was in the National from 1994 to 2005.

His career in law enforcement is born of the philosophy, “We have a duty to preserve life. I knew had to act when I saw him cutting himself.”

Rooks, who was named 2014-2015 Law Enforcement Officer of the Year by the Roanoke Rapids Optimist Club, said he became interested in law enforcement while serving in the army. “It's about trying to make a difference out there. If we can save one person, that's what we are here to do.”

The man was suffering from mental health issues, Rooks said. It's something law enforcement is seeing more of since the basic dismantling of the state mental health system.

The state of mental health care in North Carolina tends to put officers on the front line of the battle, Rooks said. “One of the solutions is to have better trained law enforcement officers to deal with people with these problems. If we don't have more, it's going to do nothing but escalate.”

Tripp, who presented Rooks the commendation last week, said, “As a result of Lieutenant Rooks' decision-making and actions, the man was able to be given the help he needed without further injury.”

The sheriff said, “In general, every law enforcement officer has a split second to make a decision and because of that it's a valuable asset to have someone such as Roy who is seasoned and tenured and serves as a mentor to his subordinates doing the right thing. He's definitely an asset to citizens of Halifax County serving them as deputy.”