OKC Officer Helps Boy Trying To Get Gifts For His Family

<p>A mother named Sophia Reed made a frantic 911 call after her son left the house upset.&nbsp;</p>

Tuesday, December 19th 2017, 7:09 pm

By: News 9


A mother named Sophia Reed made a frantic 911 call after her son left the house upset.

Reed said, “I had called the police on Deauris because he had stormed out.”

She said Officer Roland Russell with the Oklahoma City Police Department came to her door to help. Initially, Russell said he was going to file it as a runaway report, but he noticed a boy sitting at the bottom of the stairs to the apartment.

Officer Russell said, “I see him sitting there. It was probably 30 degrees outside. He had a little t-shirt on.”

Russell sat with him and had a conversation. He realized the 13-year-old was sneaking out of the house to help his mom.

“He was actually going out looking for cans to recycle to raise money to get his family Christmas gifts,” said Russell.

The officer brought Deauris home. When he went inside the apartment, he realized there was no furniture. There was only a Christmas tree with no gifts underneath.

Reed said, “I couldn’t afford a Christmas this year for the kids.”

Russell put it on his heart and sent a message out to his fellow police officers at the department, asking if anyone wanted to donate to the family. Several officers stepped in, and they were able to buy about 900 dollars’ worth of gifts and necessities for Reed, her children and her granddaughter.

The officer and his colleagues came back the following day to surprise and shower the family with gifts.

“My apartment was full of police,” said Reed. She said she was overjoyed.

Deauris never expected this to happen. He raised over 25 dollars from collecting cans.

“I was planning to go to the store and seeing what they had. We didn’t make it that far because the police helped us,” he laughed.

He said he wanted to see his mom smile.

After seeing the good in Deauris, Russell said he knew surprising the family this Christmas was what he wanted to do. 

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