Biden to meet with families of killed law enforcement officers

President Joe Biden on Thursday will meet with the families of law enforcement officers who were killed Monday in North Carolina, the White House announced.

Four officers were shot and killed in the line of duty in Charlotte on Monday attempting to serve a warrant. Eight law enforcement officers in total were shot.

Biden will also visit with officers wounded in the shootout, the White House said, as well as other law enforcement officers and elected officials.

NBC News reported the expected visit with the victims’ families ahead of the White House announcement.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at Wednesday's briefing that the officers “were heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice.”

Asked during the briefing about a trip to Charlotte ahead of the announcement, Jean-Pierre said she did not have any details to share.

Biden said in a statement Monday that "we mourn" for the officers killed and "pray for the recoveries" of the wounded.

“It’s like losing a piece of your soul,” Biden said about family members’ receiving the news.

Biden has previously used the phrase "losing a piece of your soul" and drawn on his own grief in discussing others' tragedies. His first wife and infant daughter were killed in a car crash in 1972, and his adult son Beau Biden died in 2015 after a battle with brain cancer.

Biden had already been expected to travel to Wilmington, North Carolina, on Thursday to tout his economic agenda and infrastructure projects. It will be his third visit to the battleground state this year.

Former President Donald Trump canceled a planned rally in Wilmington last month because of weather.

The North Carolina officers killed in the shooting were Sam Poloche, 42; William “Alden” Elliott, 46; Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas M. Weeks Jr.; and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Joshua Eyer, authorities said.

The suspect, who was killed in exchange of gunfire, used a high-powered rifle, authorities said.