Photo Of Officer Guiding Lost Girl To Family Goes Viral

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A lost little girl on a Miami beach was wearing a T-shirt stamped with Disney’s Frozen princesses.

She was crying but a kind stranger reached out and comforted her, and a police officer walked her back to her family.A bystander’s photo of the police officer and child walking hand in hand has drew widespread attention after being posted on Facebook.

Police officers Rich Edmonds and Ryan Bianca had just started their shift on Tuesday evening when a call about a child found on the beach came in.

Edmonds said his heart almost stopped as it always does he gets calls involving children.Edmonds later found 6-year-old Hannah with a woman whose family had been enjoying the afternoon at the beach.

“She calmed the little girl down, gave her a juice box and called police,” Edmonds recalled.

Meanwhile, authorities just learned that someone about a half-mile down the beach had approached lifeguards regarding a missing child. Bianca then headed to the lifeguard station to meet the family. Edmonds planned to take Hannah to his patrol vehicle and drive her there.

“She was upset and didn’t want to get in the vehicle,” Edmonds said. “So I said, ‘OK, let’s walk.”

As Edmonds took the child by the hand, a yoga instructor, Amy Amerell, was walking behind them with her friend who was visiting. They immediately noticed the officer and the little girl and Amerell said she then took a picture with her iPhone.

“I told my friend, this may not be appropriate, but I want to take a picture because it’s such an example of kindness and goodness,” Amerell recalled on Friday. “It was the juxtaposition of the big police officer and the tiny little girl.”

Amerell posted the photo on her Facebook page, saying, “there’s still beauty in the world.”

The photo attracted a lot of attention and she sent it to the Clearwater Police Department.

“I wanted to share it with them because it was so beautiful,” she said.

The police department shared the photo on its own Facebook page Friday morning and by late afternoon, it had received numerous likes and shares.

As they walked down the beach, Edmonds said that he told Hannah she did the right thing by finding a family with children to ask for help. He told her that everyone needs to have a plan in case they get lost. For children, it’s to always approach someone with children, or an authority figure, like a lifeguard on the beach.

The pair reached their destination at the lifeguard station, where Hannah’s uncle was waiting for her.