An 11-year-old boy has been sworn in as a volunteer police officer for 53 different police departments in Quantico, Virginia. Devarjaye “DJ” Daniel was also made an honorary member of the Metropolitan Police in London at the ceremony at the FBI Academy – his first international award.
The honors have a sad background: Daniel has terminal cancer, as his father Theodis said on the ABC show “Good Morning America” (“GMA”). Four years ago, his son was diagnosed with an anaplastic ependymoma, a fast-growing brain and spine tumor, and his dream was to become an honor policeman in as many departments as possible. This wish was triggered by an experience in 2017. Back then, three police officers would have helped the family a lot when they became homeless as a result of the destruction caused by Hurricane Harvey and had to temporarily flee to mass emergency accommodation in Houston, Texas.
“That first impression shaped all my boys and now they’ve all been sworn in as honorary officers,” Theodis Daniel quoted as saying. And with the awards at Quantico, Devarjaye is now part of 743 police departments.
Adam Colon, police chief for the city of Franklin, Ohio, was one of 53 law enforcement executives honoring “DJ” Monday. Colon had a special Franklin Police Division suit badge made for the boy, whom he described as “positive” and “full of energy and life” despite the cancer diagnosis.
“He has a lot of personality and I think it just makes him happy and [he] likes to make other people happy and that’s nice to see,” Colon told GMA of his impression of the boy.
Lieutenant Josh Sanders of the Wheeling Police Department in Wheeling, West Virginia also honored “DJ”. “What we love to do is help people, so if we can do something healthy in this young man’s life [with these swearing-in ceremonies], that’s what we wanted,” Sanders said. He had dinner with “DJ”, his two brothers and the boy’s father and described the 11-year-old as a “riot maker” who likes to crack jokes. “The boy has a great temperament. He’s a motivator. He’s an inspirer. He just pushes me to be a better person,” Sanders enthused.
He hopes that DJ’s story will inspire more kindness in the world, Theodis Daniel told GMA. “I hope this story inspires everyone in the nation, in the world, to be kind to one another.”
Sources: “Good Morning America,” WSMV 4
