A small boy in Goose Creek has an exceptional appeal for an officer with the Goose Creek Po-lice Department. And what happens next will surely melt your heart. Capt. Tom Hill from the Goose Creek Department said, “Well, it’s kind of a family legacy for me. I’ve been in law enforcement myself for about 15 years; I have two uncles in law enforcement in Miami Dade and I’ve also had a great grandfather who was in law enforcement in Chicago.” Capt. Tom Hill is following his family’s profession. And he said, “That’s why we do everything that we do- I think family unity is an extremely important thing to me.”
The 8-years-old boy named AJ Petelo was taken to Goose Creek Department by her mother, Kanesha. Kanesha said, “About a year ago, I took AJ on a tour of the Goose Creek Department.” Kanesha and her family were new to the place.
Since her husband works out of the location much of the time, and her son AJ has autistic spectrum disorder, all of this made her decide to make his son familiar with Goose Creek officers. AJ said, “I met a lot of cops while I was there, and I looked all over the place, what they have and what they do.”
Capt. Tom Hill said, “We had a good time, we gave him a tour of the po-lice department, rolled his fingerprints, and showed him around. Capt. Tom Hill said AJ began writing letters to me sporadically. “I would respond to his letters, we became pen pals,” he said. “The most recent letter, though, was really touching.” Capt. Tom Hill reads: “Dear Captain Hill, how are you? I wanted to ask you if you would be my godfather, a godfather is a dad who will be there if my dad can’t and I want that to be you.”
And I used to write him back: “I told him that I would be honored to be his godfather. I met up with him at a park; I provided him with a letter, and I gave him a little gift.” Now, Captain Hill has added a godson to his family. “It really helped me tremendously. Gives a little glimmer of hope, you know, we can reach these individuals one person at a time.”
