This is not an ordinary story- not one that we read on the news every day. It’s a story of compassion, empathy, and faith; a reply to ignorance, discrimination, and hatred.
A few days ago, a young man named Courtney James was killed on a Dallas interstate. The next day, his brother Lamar and his wife Lanell set off for Dallas to attend the funeral and everything that needed to be done related to it. As Lanell was driving, they were pulled over by a state patrol car and the trooper approached them. According to KHOU, the patrol car stopped them for not having a front license plate.
Trooper Ross Bates asked them where they were headed and when Lanell replied that they were going to Dallas due to a death in the family Bates wanted to know if it was immediate family. Lanell said that it was her husband’s brother, and that touched the trooper’s heart. So he turned to Lamar and asked if he knew where his brother was.
“[Bates] said ‘oh I’m sorry to hear that, do you know where he is?’ My husband answered ‘yes at the morgue’ and the officer responded ‘no he is now in his heavenly home'”
This brought tears to the couple’s eyes who didn’t expect such a reaction by a police officer. Bates then asked for the driver’s ID and went back to his patrol car for a moment. When he returned, he didn’t have a ticket for them as they probably expected, but only a warning. But, the most extraordinary thing was what happened next. Bates asked if he could pray with them, and when they answered positively, he also asked if he could hold their hands.
So the three of them held hands and started praying in what was a precious moment to treasure for all of them. As Lanell wrote, this has never happened to her before and, although at that moment she joined in the prayer, she also wanted to capture it exactly because it was so unusual and powerful.
“So, at this point, I mean we’re in prayer, but I’m like ‘I have to get a picture of this’ because […] he was white, we were black and there’s a lot of racial tension going on.” Lanell James told KHOU.
As the woman also explained in her Facebook post that accompanied the picture, she uploaded the photo because of all the racial fighting and killing that has been taking place recently between the police and citizens that get discriminated against because of their skin color or ethnic background.
The Facebook post has gone viral since last week and it has received dozens of comments by people who are praying for the family at this difficult time, while also praising the cop’s reaction to their story. Bates, who recently became an ordained deacon at his local church, said that he was humbled by James’ kind words and that he will always be grateful that their interaction had such a significant and positive impact on her family.
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