'We're hurting,' said Dallas Police chief David Brown Sr, in the aftermath of the shooting spree that killed five police officers and injured seven. But few will be able to understand the intensity of loss as much as him.

Brown Sr, a 30-year veteran of the force, has already lost his former police partner, his younger brother and his own son to gun violence.

Now he stands 'heartbroken' following the brutality that erupted Thursday night during a Black Lives Matter protest.

'We're hurting,' said Dallas Police Chief David Brown Sr, in the aftermath of the shooting spree that killed five police officers and injured seven

Brown Sr, 30, has already lost his former police partner, his younger brother and his own son to gun violence

Brown's longtime police partner, officer Walter Williams (left) was shot dead in 1988. His son David Brown Jr (right) shot dead a Lancaster police officer and another man, before being fatally shot

The tragic series of events began in August 1988 when his longtime police partner, officer Walter Williams was killed.

Williams, 47, had been investigating a disturbance when he was ambushed and shot in the head with a 22-caliber handgun, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.

The page describes how the responding officers had returned fire and killed the subject. Williams, who had served with DPD for five years, was survived by his wife, two sons, and daughter.

But less than three years later, Brown Sr was to suffer another crushing loss.

His younger brother, Kelvin Brown, was shot dead by drug dealers in the Phoenix area on July 3, 1991.

Maricopa County Medical Examiner's office said his 'immediate cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head', according to ABC-News.

Described by those who know him as 'introspective, intense and sometimes abrasive commander', Brown was named police chief in 2010.

Seven weeks into his new position, his son and namesake shot dead a Lancaster police officer and another man, before being fatally shot more than a dozen times. It was Father's Day.

David Brown Jr, who was 27 at the time, had struggled with drugs and suffered with bipolar disorder.

Following the horror, Keith Humphrey, the police chief of Norman, Okla told The Washington Post how Brown Sr had reached out to the families of the two slain men and visited them in their homes.

The shooting started at 8.45pm as hundreds of protesters marched through Dallas demanding justice for two black men shot dead by police earlier this week

Dallas Police officers shield bystanders after shots were fired in the middle of what had been a peaceful rally in the Texas city

Humphrey recalled: 'He approached those families as David Brown, the father of a young man that caused so much hurt in both of these families lives.'

The Norman PC said that after he had made the introductions between Brown and the families, he heard Brown say: 'First of all, I'm sorry,' and 'My son was not raised this way.'

A Dallas Morning News profile, written in 2010, just a few weeks after his appointment, revealed him to be an intensely private man despite having taken on one of the most prominent and public jobs in the city.

He is known for being serious and focused. Some say his methods are too harsh, others say he is just the man for the job.

According to the profile, he chose a career with the police after noticing the striking deterioration of his south Oak Cliff neighborhood 'every time he visited home while attending college in Austin'.

Twelve police officers were shot in the shooting and five killed. Two bystanders were also shot and injured. Above, police investigators walk the scene of the shooting Friday morning

Brown has since earned a reputation for striking a careful balance between his public and private self, including reaching out to officer unions and vowing increased transparency.

Former Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle said: 'He takes what we do very seriously and he holds people accountable.

'But I've never seen him do it in a demeaning, critical kind of way. I've always thought that he was very serious and he was very private, and that's largely a function of his personality.'