A funeral is taking place at noon today at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Catholic Church in Lake Charles. The burial follows at the Lacassine Cemetery in Lacassine.

The deceased is 44-year-old Louisiana State Police veteran Senior Trooper Steven Vincent, who passed away Monday after he was shot during the course of a traffic incident over the weekend.

Vincent and his wife Katherine have a 9-year-old son.

Unfortunately, Vincent is not the only law enforcement officer our state lost this week.

Henry Nelson, 52, a Sunset police officer, was killed Wednesday by while intervening in a domestic dispute.

The killing was the sixth of a law enforcement officer in Louisiana this year.

Those in the River Parishes know this horror all too well.

Cpl. Burt Hazeltine of the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office was shot three times on a Thursday morning in April after authorities said he got into a disagreement with a motorist.

At the time, Sheriff Greg Champagne championed his officer’s resolve, saying even with multiple gunshot wounds, Hazeltine was able to return fire and radio vital information to other responding officers.

“One of (Hazeltine’s) first comments on the police radio was to advise dispatch to alert the School Board to divert school buses from the area,” Champagne said. “That speaks volumes to the caliber of officer Corporal Hazeltine is.”

Hazeltine would undergo multiple surgeries and was eventually released from the hospital.

There is no doubt much of today and this weekend will be spent in reflection of the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. However, we can’t lose sight of a dangerous and disturbing trend occurring right now, this week in our own state.

Six law enforcement officers have already lost their lives in 2015 in Louisiana. The scariest thing is — as we saw with the shooting in St. Charles Parish — the number could be much higher.