Officer grabs gun when teen comes up behind her at gas station – realizes he's trying to keep her safe
Filling up your car with gas at a gas station shouldn’t be such a scary ordeal, but for these cops, it unfortunately is.
Back in 2015, Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy Darren Goforth tragically lost his life at a gas pump in Houston, TX.
After the terrible event, the rest of the cops were very scared, even when doing such a mundane task.
Right off the heels of the event, a female deputy, Tommi Kelley, was out pumping gas at a gas station. And because anxiety was already so high, she ended up having a little scare of her own.
When she was filling up her tank she was not alone.
“You shouldn’t be afraid to get gas or have your hand on your hip while you’re getting gas,” Kelley told USA Today.
“The guy was watching behind me and he said, ‘Ma’am, ma’am,’ and of course, from behind, our first reaction…” Kelley continues, motioning that her first initial reaction was to put her hand on her gun and feel the fear. She was doing the right thing by assuming the worst, feeling prepared, and taking the proper precautions.
Turns out, the man approaching her was a 16-year-old boy named McKinley Zoellner. And he wasn’t trying to scare her. In fact, he was trying to keep her safe.
When he approached Kelley, he asked her if he could keep an eye on her while she pumped her gas so that he could make sure nothing bad would happen to her.
“I stood kind of in front of her, watched behind her, made sure no one was coming in and saw all the cars coming through. Just making sure nothing was going to happen to her,” Zoellner continued to explain.
“The poor kid was getting rained on. It was pouring and I looked over there after a full tank of gas and he’s still getting rained on,” Kelley added.
Zoellner clearly did not care that it was pouring. His number one priority was keeping Kelley safe and making sure nothing would happen to her, especially after a tragic incident in the county. He was doing the right thing by keeping an eye on her.
It is one thing to standby and watch things happen, it’s another thing to take action, make a difference and actively make a change.
It was a simple act that made a huge difference.
Afterward, Kelley gave the teenage boy a hug and the two snapped a quick selfie together. Little did they know, that selfie — along with their heartwarming story — would go viral. The whole world was in awe and could not believe the thoughtfulness of the boy, especially only at 16.
The story was shared hundreds of thousands of times. It is no doubt that the world understands just how meaningful this story is. It proves that human beings can be really amazing, and we can still look out for each other and have one another’s back.
Check out the story below.
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