A photo captured the heartwarming moment when a deputy prayed at the bedside of a teen who was injured in the Florida school shooting on Wednesday, Feb. 14.
Coincidentally, deputy Brenda Louis from the Broward Sheriff’s Office had been assigned to a detail on the hospital floor where Kyle was recovering from surgery. Louis, who has been serving on the force for two years and is herself a mother of a 16-year-old teen, was drawn to the injured 15-year-old when she became overwhelmed with empathy upon seeing Kyle come out of surgery.
Louis said she was thinking about the pain that his parents would have been feeling. “When Kyle came out from surgery, I just felt it in my heart. It was really heavy in me to pray for him.
“And my sister actually texted me, and she was like ‘You need to pray for these kids. You were placed there for a reason.’”
“I just took a risk, and I asked the mom and the dad, ‘Is it OK if I pray for Kyle?’ And they were very ecstatic. They were happy and were like, ‘Of course you can,’” she recalled.
The compassionate deputy then stood next to Kyle’s bedside, and with her eyes closed and one hand on his leg, Louis started praying for the injured teen.
One of the people in the room took a photo of the heartfelt moment.
“I had no idea they were going to take this picture of me,” Loius said.
The photo has been shared many times on social media and has moved the hearts of many.
“I just believe prayer is very powerful,” Louis told the news station.
“It’s going to be hard, I guarantee you that it’s going to be hard. Just prayer and knowing that God is there, they’re going to get through it,” the deputy added.
Kyle has been moved by the amount of support he has received from the community.
“Our community is amazing and has been extremely supportive,” Kyle told ABC News.
Florida Governor Rick Scott also paid the young teen a visit.
A GoFundMe page was set up for the Laman family to help pay for Kyle’s medical bills. At the time of writing, it has raised $3,800 of it’s $10,000 goal.
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