Police officer comforts crying little girl who asked 'are you gonna shoot us?' during protest

Police officer comforts crying little girl during George Floyd protest

During a protest in Houston for George Floyd, a crying little girl asked an officer if he was going to shoot them. He wrapped his arm around her and this is what he said.

HOUSTON, Texas - A special moment caught on camera between a little girl and a police officer during the George Floyd protests has gone viral.

Simeon Bartee attended one of the peaceful protests in Houston this week with his wife and daughter, 5-year-old Simone. During the protest, one of the police officers noticed little Simone crying.

"She asked him 'Are you gonna shoot us?'" Bartee wrote on Twitter.

He said at that moment, the officer got down on one knee wrapped his arm around her.

"We're here to protect you. We're not here to hurt you at all," he told Simone. "You can protest. You can party. You can do whatever you want. Just don't break nothing."

When Bartee spoke with KTRK about the encounter, he thanked the officer for his kindness and for giving him a glimpse of what good law enforcement can look like.

“We have dealt with a lot of pain from that and it's kind of gone full circle for me now,” he said. “I just want to tell the officer thank you for giving me a different perspective on what police officers, the good police officers, are like.”

Bartee also said the officer told him he was a father, which surprised Simone, who later mentioned it to her dad.

“She looked up at me and said, 'I didn’t know police officers had kids,'" he added.

Fox News contributed to this report.