LEBANON — The chaplain for the Warren County Sheriff’s Office says employees there are “running on adrenaline” in the wake of their fallen brother’s horrific death.

The Rev. William Hounshell said the administration and every shift at the sheriff’s office have been “debriefed” and assured help is there if they need it to cope with the death of Sgt. Brian Dulle.

A day after the tragic death, Warren County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy John Newsom said the initial shock has wore off but now “a little bit of reality has set in.”

“Today we were starting to miss him,” Newsom said. “He’s very hard to replace. He was one of our future leaders.”

Flags have been at half-staff and flowers have been placed on the county’s police memorial since Dulle’s death. A tent has been erected for Friday’s planned Police Memorial Remembrance as part of the county’s annual observance of National Police Week.

Hounshell suspects his services will be needed more important later.

“The sheriff and I talked this morning and we know when the services are over this week, it’s going to be just the beginning of making sure all of our deputies are OK,” he said. “After we go back to what might considered normal and go back to our work day, that’s when we will begin to slow down and realize more and more what happened.”

Dulle was killed in the line of duty, tossing Stop Sticks onto U.S. 42, hoping to halt Marcus Isreal as he allegedly sped away from a police pursuit. The tragedy happened at around 2 a.m. Tuesday.

The Rev. Jeff Perkins, chaplain for Mason’s police and fire departments, said when there is a death like this one, police and firefighters take it very personally.

“They are a brotherhood and sisterhood, this is a family loss to them, this is not just an employee, a co-worker,” he said. “As far as the grieving goes, they are grieving because that’s part of their family. I just can’t imagine. They are grieving for the wife and the children.”

The fact that Dulle died doing his job makes the tragedy doubly hard to deal with, he said.

Ed Richter contributed to this story.