Police officers see a lot of terrible things on the job. They see gruesome murders, family members lose loved ones, people’s property and livelihoods stolen, and people in the most depraved states of being.
It’s not an easy job by any means and is enough to make one cry.
Officers have to be exceptionally strong to keep it together on the job but sometimes it gets to be too much. Sometimes there is something an officer sees that just breaks his heart.
That’s what happened to Deputy James Gautney when he was on duty one night. Gautney, who makes more DWI stops than anyone in the state, became emotionally overwhelmed after pulling over a woman who was speeding and driving while intoxicated with her 6-year-old niece in the car.
He decided to pull over a gold Caddilac when he saw it barreling down the highway at 96 mph.
“What’s this guy’s hurry,” he said in a video that was recorded on a dash cam.
Gautney was shocked to discover that there was a little girl in the front passenger seat of the car that wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.
When he questioned the driver named Yvonne, she told Gautney that she was scared of the freeway. Gautney sensed that something was up and asked her to step out of her car. She said she just came from a concert and the officer found that she had trouble walking and talking.
“I think she’s scared,” Yvonne said of her niece who was still in the car.
“Yeah, I’m sure she is,” he told her. “I’d be afraid. Especially the way you were driving. I’d be afraid too.”
Yvonne eventually admitted to the officer that she was intoxicated after she was unable to follow instructions for her sobriety tests.
He arrested Yvonne and went to attend to the little girl. He opens the trunk of the car to find several baby strollers in the trunk. That was the last straw for the officer. He got emotional and broke down in tears when he called dispatch.
“That makes my heart hurt,” he says on the phone. “It breaks my heart. God, it breaks my heart.”
Yvonne ended up striking a plea deal on the DWI charge. She was also charged with child abuse which was later dropped
You can watch the officer’s emotional reaction in the video below.
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