Acts of Kindness
8-yr-old autistic boy misses dad traveling for work so he befriends officer then makes sweet request
Even AJ's parents didn't see the request coming.
E. Holder
11.24.20

Police are in the news a lot lately.

Unfortunately, a lot of what we’re hearing, seeing, and reading is true. There are bad cops. Probably more than we know. Did they start off bad, or did the things they see every day turn them to the dark side?

We’ll probably never know that.

What we do know—or at least hope to be true—is that for every bad cop out there, there is a legion of good cops. The kind of cops you want your kids to trust, because one day they may need them.

The mother of a young boy in South Carolina took steps so that her son got to know the local police.

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And what happened after that leads to a beautiful story.

Kanesha Leach-Petelo and her husband moved to the city of Goose Creek a year or so ago, and she had some concerns. She told WCBD News that her husband was often away as he did a lot of traveling for work, and her 8-year-old son AJ is on the autistic spectrum.

Because of that, her goal was to make sure he was familiar with all the first responders and emergency services in the area. If he ever needed them, she wanted to be sure he was comfortable with them.

And of course, the Goose Creek Police Department is part of that group.

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A tour of the police department was arranged, and the rest, as they say, is history.

It was during this tour that AJ met Capt. Tom Hill. Hill has been on the force for about fifteen years, following in something of a family tradition.

He told WCBD,

“Well, it’s kind of a family legacy for me. I’ve been in law enforcement myself about 15 years; I have two uncles in law enforcement in Miami Dade and I’ve also had a great grandfather who was in law enforcement in Chicago.”

And that legacy is getting passed on to his own family. He admits,

“That’s why we do everything that we do. I think the family unity is an extremely important thing to me.”

Perhaps young AJ sensed the kind of man the captain was while getting his tour, because the two spent some time together that day. Capt. Hill explains,

“We gave him the tour of the police department, rolled his fingerprints, showed him around. We had a good time.”

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After the visit, AJ began writing letters to the captain.

Hill said that in the beginning the letters were sporadic, but he always responded when he got one. But as time passed, the two became pen pals.

Recently though, Hill received a letter that touched his heart.

He read the letter for WCBD.

“Dear Captain Hill, how are you? I wanted to ask you if you would be my godfather, a godfather is a dad who will be there if my dad can’t and I want that to be you.”

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You’d need to have a heart of stone not to be touched by that, but Hill proves himself a softie.

“I told him that I would be honored to be his godfather. I met up with him at a park; I provided him with a letter, and I gave him a little gift.”

At a time when there is so much hatred and fear of the police—some of which is deserved—Hill says this episode has given him a glimmer of hope. It has helped him to realize that he has a chance to connect with the people of his community.

As News Break reports, he realizes he still has a chance to reach them,

“One person at a time.”

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