Sometimes it’s the simplest acts of duty that garner the most fanfare.
On Monday morning, two St. Louis County Police officers were on duty when a man approached them. The man, St. Louis resident Willie Hatcher, was on his way to a job interview and asked the officers for help with tying his necktie, the department wrote on Facebook.
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One of the officers – Sgt. Howard Marshall – not only volunteered to help the man assemble the tie but showed him how to do it while first practicing on himself as well.
“It was a really cool moment. One of the better moments of my career,” Marshall, who has been on the force for 19 years, told ABC News.
Officer Abenet Carper caught the heartwarming moment on camera, which came after a protest-filled weekend over a former officer Jason Stockley’s acquittal in the 2011 shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith.
Marshall said that Hatcher seemed apprehensive at first to approach him and Carper.
“He kept staring at us, probably for 10 or 15 minutes,” Marshall recalled. “I didn’t know if he was going to come over and voice his displeasure with us.”
The police department’s post quickly spread through social media, garnering more than 13,000 likes and several thousand shares as of Friday.
It appears the goodwill from the interaction carried over to Hatcher’s job interview, because he got the job, police said.
Hatcher even commented on the Facebook that made him a viral sensation.
“I now have 3 jobs and now I’m famous,” Hatcher wrote on Monday.
Marshall said it was “just one person helping another.”
“This was just a good moment and I’m very happy to have taken part in it,” said Marshall. “I was taken aback.”
Marshall said the police department is “so happy” for Hatcher and that he wants to congratulate him on his new job.
(H/T: ABC News)