Georgia State Trooper Nathan Bradley
Georgia State Trooper Nathan Bradley had a difficult task to perform. He had responded to a fatal car accident on Halloween evening, and now he and two other officers needed to notify relatives of the deaths of the couple who had died: Donald and Crystal Howard. As it turned out, their home was a mere quarter mile from the accident scene.
When Bradley and the other officers knocked on the door, they were greeted with a heart-breaking sight: four excited children all dressed up in their Halloween costumes, waiting for their parents to return home with a few more supplies so that they could go out trick-or-treating.
After consulting with his superior officer, Bradley made the decision not to tell the children immediately. He didn’t want to destroy Halloween for them. And he judged that it would be better if they heard the terrible news from a relative. The department did some quick research and contacted the children’s paternal grandmother, Stephanie Oliver, who lived eight hours away in Florida. She got on the road immediately.
But what to do with the kids in the meantime?
Officer Bradley decided to give the kids a fun and exciting Halloween, and let them find out about their parents’ deaths the next morning, from their own grandmother. He took them out in his patrol car, lights flashing, to get their favorite fast food. And he arranged a party for them at the station, where they also spent the night in the bedrooms where the police officers usually slept.
Even while his own heart was breaking for these kids, whose world was about to be turned upside down, he put on a smiling face, and let them have a special Halloween celebration.
You can read the whole story at People.com: “Georgia Trooper Cares for Orphans After Their Parents Are Killed in Halloween Crash: ‘It Just Tore Me Apart’”
Naturally, not everyone had a positive reaction to the officer’s decision and actions. Here’s the headline on the story at Gawker.com: “Should This Cop Have Lied to These Kids Whose Parents Just Died?”
Well . . . Gawker’s gonna do what Gawker’s gonna do. For every parade, there’s a whole army of sad and cynical people out there who take special pleasure and pride in raining on it.
And yet, there is a valid question behind all the cynicism. Was the officer really justified in not telling those kids that their parents had just died? Doesn’t that amount to lying to them? Don’t they have a right to know? And isn’t there a commandment against lying?
For more on love and lying, please click here to read on.
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