An 8-Year-Old Ran From Domestic Violence… What This Deputy Did Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity
The 911 call was for a domestic disturbance. When Deputy Miles arrived, the 8-year-old had already run, looking for any safe place to hide…
It was a cold Tuesday night when the call came in: “screaming and glass breaking” at a local apartment complex.
Deputy Miles, a 15-year veteran and a father of two, felt the familiar knot in his stomach. These were the worst calls. When he and his partner got to the apartment, the chaos was obvious. A man was enraged, and a woman was in tears.
But the 8-year-old daughter, Maya, was gone.
“She… she ran out,” the mother cried. “She gets so scared. She just ran.”
Miles’s training kicked in, but so did his paternal instinct. A little girl, alone, in the dark, in this neighborhood. Miles’s gut told him to check the 24-hour laundromat across the street—the only place with bright lights on. His partner radioed for another unit to secure the apartment and search the grounds, while they both went to check the laundromat first.
They walked in, the bell on the door chiming, and Miles’s heart broke.
There, on a wooden bench, huddled in a purple coat, was Maya. She was sobbing, her little body shaking with fear. When she saw his uniform, she flinched and curled up even tighter.
Miles didn’t loom. He didn’t rush. He slowly sat on the bench, leaving a safe space between them, and just waited a beat.
“Hey kiddo,” he said, his voice softer than he’d used all night. “You’re safe here with me, all right?”
That’s when the dam broke. “He was yelling,” she cried, her voice muffled. “I didn’t know where else to go!”
“I know,” Miles said, gently resting a hand on her back. “You did the right thing coming here. Nobody’s going to hurt you while I’m around, okay?”
The backup unit had secured the father back at the apartment. But for the next 20 minutes, as they waited for social services to arrive with her mom, Miles wasn’t a deputy. He was just a safe place, sitting on a laundromat bench, refusing to leave her side until she knew the storm was over.
