Officer Michael Rivers has been working for the Goldsboro Police Department in North Carolina for nine years. He knows most of the homeless people in his community face-to-face. But one day, he saw a homeless woman he had never met before. Her shirt caught his attention. It said, “Homeless. The fastest way of becoming a nobody.”
He rolled down his windows and exchanged a friendly “hey” with her. Then he drove on, but something in his heart told him to go back, Rivers said.
“God put it on my heart to get her lunch,” the 29-year-old officer told CNN. “So I turned around and asked her, ‘Hey, did you eat today?’ And she said, ‘No.’”
He bought pepperoni and cheese pizzas from a nearby pizza shop and joined her on the grass. They enjoyed the pizza, but they enjoyed the conversation even more.
For 45 minutes, Rivers and the homeless woman, who he said introduced herself as Michelle, talked about their lives. A passerby snapped a photo of the touching moment, and her husband posted it on Facebook.
“Law enforcement does so much for our community, with a lot of it going unnoticed,” Chris Barnes said in his Facebook post, which has since garnered nearly 1,000 likes and more than 3,000 shares.
“We see you, Goldsboro P.D. Keep up the good work,” Barnes added.
As they chatted, Michelle told Rivers she has a 12-year-old daughter who is fighting liver disease and is in foster care. She also has a 23-year-old son, Rivers said. Her husband, who is also homeless, watched them from across the street.
They parted ways after finishing their lunch. But Rivers said the encounter made him realize that he and Michelle were similar in how society treats them.
People who are homeless are often ignored by society and blamed for their situation.
And for him, he didn’t become a police officer because he wanted to ruin people’s lives, Rivers said.
“I come to work, and my goal is, ‘Who can I bless today? Who can I make smile?” Rivers said. ‘“I’m not the one who wants to take somebody’s father or mother away and put them in jail.”
Police Chief Michael West saw the picture on social media and praised Rivers for his kindness.
“The circumstances around our job are often an unpleasant call to service, but this picture just shows we’re human like anyone else, and any chance we get to serve the community and help people, we take that chance,” West told CNN. “I’m very fortunate to have Officer Rivers in our department.”
This is a heartwarming story of compassion and connection. Officer Rivers showed that he cares about the homeless woman and her family. He shared a meal and a conversation with her. This made her feel like somebody.
Share this story with your friends and family to inspire them to be more like Officer Rivers!