California cop consoles boy with special needs

A California police officer recently went beyond his call of duty when he helped console a boy with special needs who was having a temper tantrum.

Corinne Oestreich wrote on Facebook that the cop, referred only to as Officer Ben, distracted her son outside a grocery store by letting him see inside his patrol car and demonstrating how to look for fingerprints, Fox 5 Atlanta reported. Hunter, who has obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), Tourette’s syndrome and severe anxiety, had been upset that his grandmother had just ended a visit with the family and returned to Minnesota.

“He kicked and screamed through the entire store,” Oestreich shared on Facebook. “I held him, I consoled him. I firmly and kindly stayed calm, yet inside I was terrified of the looks from other shoppers, or rather from their averted eyes as my son threw himself on the floor of [Lucky’s].”

Oestreich wrote that Hunter was so upset, she had trouble getting him safely to the car until Officer Ben intervened.

“Officer Ben was understanding, wanted to make sure that I knew he was not in any haste to go anywhere and that Hunter and I were his focus,” she wrote on Facebook. “He kept a distance from Hunter and I could tell he was gauging how much Hunter would allow him to be near him.

“He really helped my son today,” she added, “and gave this mama some reinforcements when I thought my own anxiety was near flooding with tears.”