A white Houston police officer was seen on video comforting a 5-year-old black girl on Tuesday at a protest over the death of George Floyd.
Simeon Bartee, the girl's father, filmed the footage and posted tweeted it out with this message:
Bartee tweeted Wednesday:
"During the protest in Houston yesterday one of the police officers noticed my daughter crying. She asked him 'Are you gonna shoot us' he got down on one knee wrapped his arm around her and responded."
Bartee said his daughter Simone wanted to ask the officer if her family was allowed to protest.
"We're here to protect you," the officer responded. "We're not here to hurt you at all. OK? You can protest, you can party – you can do whatever you want. Just don't break nothing."
Bartee spoke with ABC's Houston affiliate KTRK about the meeting and thanked the officer for showing graciousness.
"We have dealt with a lot of pain from that and it's kind of gone full circle for me now,” Bartee said. "I just want to tell the officer thank you for giving me a different perspective on what police officers, the good police officers, are like."
"She looked up at me and said, 'I didn't know police officers had kids,'" he added.
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