Besides going through an incredibly scary day today, Candra Calhoon has been through a lot this year. Her brother, is Deputy Chad Mechels, the Turner County Sheriff who was shot and killed in the line of duty this past march.

It's a year that no one could possibly imagine. Losing your son in March and knowing that your daughter lives on an Army base where 12 people were killed is unimaginable to most. Unfortunately, for Sandy Mechels, this nightmare of a situation, is reality.

Sandy told Action News this afternoon, "I couldn't take it if something else happened to my family, we already are dealing with life day by day and we just couldn't handle anything else."

A phone call from her daughter, from Fort Hood Army Base in Texas made Sandy Mechels heart stop. "She called and said, 'Mom I just want to let you know that I'm ok,' and I said what are you talking about? She said 'Mom there's been a shooting here at Fort Hood' and I went oh my god," recalls Sandy.

In march of this year, Sandy's son Chad was killed while responding to a welfare call. The death of the Turner County Deputy stunned the state and the town of Chancellor where Chad and Candra grew up, a town that Staff Sergaent Rachel Hangman says will always be there in support.

Rachel said at her home today, "I know that the town is with them, the whole entire family and like I said and I can't say it enough that I hope that everything works out for them and yeah definitely there will be prayers for them."

Today's event at Fort Hood is another reminder of what the Mechels family has been through but it's a reminder that the community won't soon forget.

Rachel added, "I run probably 3 nights a week and there's not a night that I don't run by that house twice that I don't seriously think about them, the loss that they've suffered and now this new tragic event."

Rachel knows that if any family can fight through an event like today's it's the Mechels and Sandy knows that while she's here in south dakota, her daughter's husband is in iraq it will need to be her daughter that will need to keep the family strong.

"She's got to be the strength for herself and for her children, yes, I'm very concerned," said Sandy of her daughter.

Sandy says that the two events that she's now lived through could have happened to any military or law enforcement families and all her family needs are prayers.