iStock/Thinkstock(DANVILLE, Ohio) — Two Ohio police officers escorted the daughters of one of their fallen comrades to the girls’ homecoming dance this weekend after their father was shot and killed in the line of duty earlier this year.
“It was just amazing, I can’t even put it into words,” Anna Montgomery, the mother of Courtney, Brooklyn and Alycia Cottrell, told ABC News Monday.
Courtney, Brooklyn and Alycia lost their father, Officer Thomas Cottrell of the Danville Police Department, in January of this year, Montgomery said.
Montgomery said that she had just asked one of the officers if he could take the girls to the dance, and “they just ran with it,” using both an unmarked and marked patrol vehicle to escort the girls and their dates to their high school’s homecoming dance.
“They drove them to dinner and the dance, and then drove them home,” Montgomery said of the police officers.
“They kept just saying ‘It’s our honor, it’s our honor,'” Montgomery added, “The brothers in blue definitely came through for the girls.”
Montgomery said that the officers waited at the school during the entire dance and then brought the girls safely home when it finished.
“It made them feel a little more like Daddy was there,” Montgomery said.
Montgomery said her girls, aged 14, 15, and 17 “had a blast,” and even got a little “teary” a couple of times.
Officer Mark Perkins of the Danville Police Department, one of the officers who escorted the girls, told ABC News Monday that he used to work with the girls’ father.
“I told them, and I told their mother, the pleasure was all ours, to be able to do that and to share that with all them was pretty special,” Perkins said. “I’m a father of four, and so I know what I would’ve wanted the guys to do for me.”
“We escorted them to dinner, and the dance, we agreed that we would take all three of them and their dates to do whatever they wanted to do,” Perkins said.
Perkins said that they even pulled up a chair for their father at the table while they ate dinner, “so, in effect, he was there with us.”
“We didn’t want everybody all upset, so it would take away from their moment,” Perkins said, “but we also wanted them to know that we would never forget him.”
Perkins said they brought a marked patrol car with their dad’s patrol number, 373, displayed on the back.
All three girls were very appreciative, according to Perkins, “their smiles were ear-to-ear, it was just a wonderful opportunity.”
“We make sure that we know that we are there for them, and we check on them,” Perkins added.
“The important thing for everyone in that family, the girls’ family, to remember, is that they’ll never be by themselves, we will always be with them,” Perkins said. “We will never replace their dad, that’s for sure, but we will share in their moments with them.”
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