A Heartwarming Act of Kindness: A Teen’s Gesture Captured by a Cop
When a teen ran up to an elderly woman in the rain, he had no idea that a police officer was watching his every move. As he crossed the parking lot toward his ride, the cop stopped him. At first, the driver thought it was a big misunderstanding, but it quickly became clear that the cop knew exactly what he was doing.
Officer Joe Holt with the Independence Police Department in Independence, Missouri, was sitting in his cruiser in a local grocery store parking lot during a downpour when a young man caught his eye. As the cop watched, a young black teen exited the backseat of a van in the pouring rain and made a beeline for an elderly woman who was struggling to cross the parking lot. Unaware that the cop was watching, the boy, who Officer Holt would later learn was named Tyrea Pryor, took off his coat and held it over the woman’s head, protecting her from the elements as best as he could. Tyrea followed the stranger all the way to her car, not knowing he was being watched or that the officer had snapped a picture.
“It was pouring down rain and all of a sudden I see this teenager running across the parking lot taking his coat off,” Holt recalled. The officer watched Tyrea walk back to his car, all the while not saying a word to his aunt or mom when he exited or re-entered the van. That’s when the cop knew he had to speak up.
Officer Holt followed Tyrea to his mom’s van where he decided to have a talk with the boy’s mother about what her son had just done. “I followed him to the van and approached the driver who was his mom,” Holt explained. “I told this young man I was impressed and he should be proud because I was.” His mom had no idea what was happening and thought she had done something wrong since Holt was in uniform, but he quickly cleared up the misunderstanding.
“I told his mom that she has done amazing with him and I hope and pray he goes places. She started tearing up because I was a cop and took time out of my day to call him out on what I witnessed,” Holt wrote in a Facebook post. “It was a moment between the both of us. I mean, I teared up a little bit. I’m a parent as well so I told her that I was very impressed with him and that he should be proud,” Holt said.
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