Fort Worth, Texas police officer Damon Cole wasn’t able to save 5-year-old Joshua Garcia from drowning, but he did honor the child’s memory at a special funeral service.
Joshua drowned in a pool just minutes after his mother called police to report him missing. Officer Cole was the first to respond and found the boy and tried to revive him but it was too late.
“It’s hard, because I really wanted to save that boy,” he told USA Today. When Officer Cole pulled Joshua from the pool, he noticed the boy was wearing Spider-Man shoes and a Spider-Man shirt.
He later learned that the character was Joshua’s favorite superhero, and the family planned to have a Spider-Man-themed funeral.
That’s when Officer Cole decided to show up in his Spiderman costume in honor of Joshua’s memory and so that the little boy could be laid to rest with his beloved superhero by his side.
“There isn’t a minute that hasn’t gone by since Saturday that I haven’t thought about Joshua and his family,” said Cole. “And anything I can do to help honor his memory, I’ll do it.”
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