"To protect and serve": That's the motto of police departments all over the country. You can see that motto in action in this quietly heartbreaking photo of a police officer comforting a toddler girl who survived a terrible accident.
When officer Nick Struck of Brighton, Colorado responded to a fatal crash the first thing he saw were bodies that had been thrown from a car. Two adults and four children had been in that accident. The father was dead, and most of the others were injured.
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"When you hear that there's children involved, I'll tell you what, everyone that responds to that scene, you get that pit in your stomach," Struck told 9News. "The first thing we do when we get on scene is we just try to, if we can comfort anybody, of course we're going to go to the kids."
Struck was handed a two-year-old girl and immediately knew what to do. The dad of a girl the same age treated the toddler as his own daughter. He turned her away from the accident and sang her "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."
A witness, Jessica Matrious, captured the tender moment in a photo that's gone viral.
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We are extremely proud of the men and women of our department! Good work, Officer Struck! Thank you, 9NEWS (KUSA), for covering this!
Posted by Brighton Police Department on Saturday, June 20, 2015
Struck later described this moment.
I have a two-year-old daughter and she's my first kid. So of course, your first thought is that could be your little daughter. I'm not a medical person, but I know how to give a hug to somebody, and you better believe every one of those officers on scene would do the same thing.
We think of heroes as physically strong, of putting their lives in danger. But much more often heroes serve through quiet moments like these. Police work isn't just about stopping crime. It's about serving the public in all kinds of ways.
This little girl has just lost her father. The adult female (very likely her mother) and another child were airlifted to the hospital, which tells you that their injuries were probably critical. She must have been feeling scared and confused, with no one familiar to comfort her.
Thank goodness Struck knew exactly what to do in this situation. We hope the rest of this little girl's family recovers swiftly.
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Have you ever seen a police officer acting protecting and serving in ways we don't ordinarily associate with the police?
Image by Jessica Matrious via Brighton Police Department/Facebook