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BRIGHTON, Colo. — A Colorado officer is being praised after comforting a hysterical 2-year-old girl after her dad died in a crash over Father's Day weekend.
Officer Nick Struck was called to help when a car carrying six people rolled over, ejecting everyone. He arrived on the scene to discover a father of four had died in the one-vehicle crash Thursday, June 18, 9News reported.
"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," he told 9 News. "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."
A hysterical 2-year-old who was in the crash was handed off to Struck, who has a daughter the same age. He deployed the same tactic he uses to calm his little girl down: singing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”
“By the time we get to 'up above,' she stops crying and starts singing along," Struck told today.com
The toddler started stroking his arm along to the song, something his daughter does too, he told today.com. As Struck walked the little girl around, singing to her and trying to distract her from the accident, a witness captured the moment on camera. The heart-wrenching picture has since gone viral.
"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," Struck told 9News.
Two adults and four kids involved in the accident were not properly restrained, according to a police press release. The cause of the accident is still under investigation.
