Honey Grove, Texas -- When you drove around Honey Grove on Independence Day weekend, there were cookouts and backyards full of friends in several places, but the one at Robert Eitel's house was different. These friends were there to support a man who risked his life to save a friend and protect the town he loves.

Precinct 3 Constable Kevin Mayberry is reserved and soft-spoken, even when he is reliving an experience that, quite understandably, still haunts him day and night.

It all began June 15, 2021 at approximately 11:00 p.m., when Honey Grove Police Officer David Pruiett responded to a possible domestic disturbance.

Precinct 3 Constable Kevin Mayberry had just returned home from serving papers when he heard the same call go out. At first, there was no reason to believe this would be different than previous times Honey Grove PD had responded to similar calls at this address.

But as soon as Officer Pruiett keyed his radio, Mayberry heard screams in the background and hit the ground running.

Two blocks from Mayberry's house, Pruiett had encountered David D'Ambrogio, 29, who was armed with a rifle. When Mayberry slid to a stop one minute later, he found Pruiett taking cover behind the engine of his squad car and saw D'Ambrogio on his front porch wearing protective body armor and a rifle sling. Then the first shots went through Mayberry's truck.

In the first three minutes, Mayberry estimates D'Ambrogio got off 30-50 shots. The primary objective in this situation was to neutralize the threat, but the officers would have to overcome great odds; both were armed with only 9mm pistols while the assailant was blasting away with a 5.56 caliber AR-15 assault rifle. Mayberry was told that D'Ambrogio also had a .308 caliber rifle at his disposal.

To complicate matters, family members were in the house and every shot in the officer's direction had the potential to harm neighbors. In a town where everyone knows everybody, Mayberry knew he had to get his friend and fellow officer to safety and, as outgunned as he was, he had to contain the threat until back-up arrived.

Mayberry returned fire and forced the man back into his house. At some point, children exited the house and Mayberry directed them to safety. D'Ambrogio came out of his backyard shooting   and Mayberry believed Pruiett was a goner if he didn't intervene.

Once again, Mayberry opened fire and the gunman retreated, falling backwards at one point, either from a glancing blow off body armor or from being hit by shards of glass because Mayberry was shooting through his truck window.

D'Ambrogio then began shooting through his closed garage door at the general location of Pruiett's squad car and Mayberry's truck.

Pruiett was wounded in the leg and Mayberry knew this was his best chance to make a move. Squeezing off a series of shots into the garage door, there was a moment's lull from the rifle, giving Mayberry a chance to race to his fellow officer and drag him to safety as D'Ambrogio resumed firing through the garage door. 

As his 26 years of experience in law enforcement kicked in, Mayberry asked Pruiett for his ammunition clip because he knew it would work in his pistol, too.

Mayberry estimates that D'Ambrogio got off 80-100 rounds in the direction of the officers. When back-up arrived, Mayberry had emptied his 13-bullet clip.

"I don't know how I managed to keep from getting hit," Mayberry says quietly. "I guess it wasn't my time to go."

With the arrival of the Paris Police Department SWAT Team, Lamar and Fannin County sheriff’s deputies, DPS SWAT, Texas Rangers and the Plano PD Bomb Squad, nearby homes were evacuated and streets were blocked off.

Mayberry began debriefing procedures with Texas Rangers.

Pruiett was flown to a Plano hospital where he was admitted in stable condition and eventually released June 23.

D'Ambrogio would shoot and kill himself after a 10-hour standoff with law enforcement.

Two weeks later, sitting in a rocking chair on the back porch of the home he is restoring in Honey Grove, Mayberry says he is grateful for the daily support he is receiving from close friends who understand how tough this has all been to process.

Fannin County Criminal District Attorney Richard Glaser has been a steady source of advice. Next-door neighbor and mayor of Honey Grove, Claude Caffee, checks on Mayberry daily. Honey Grove Police Chief Leigh Dixon calls regularly.  Pruiett and Mayberry stay in touch.

On top of the stress of reliving the experience every day, Mayberry says he is waiting to hear if his truck is totaled after being shot several times and if Fannin County will replace it. When he is on official duty, he would prefer to be in a squad car. At the very least, it would seem that constable's vehicles would be covered by the county's insurance policy.

Mayberry wants people to know that he supports veterans and he is proud of several family members who are veterans; he is understanding and sympathetic of the mental trauma suffered by combat veterans such as D'Ambrogio. But now, thousands of miles from a battlefield, the families involved, their friends -- in a small way, many in a community that prides itself in being known as "The Sweetest Town in Texas" -- will flashback to June 15, 2021 every time they hear fireworks go off or a car backfire.

And nobody knows that any better than David Pruiett and Kevin Mayberry.