I thought you all might enjoy a heart warming story on a day when so much of the news is depressing. Down the road from Dallas, inmates being held in a Parker County jail have given us all a reminder that all hope is not lost in police-community relations.

On June 23^rd, about eight inmates congregated in a holding cell in the basement of a District Courts building in Weatherford, joking with the guard on duty who sat by himself across the hall.  They suddenly noticed that he slumped over, unconscious.  He had apparently suffered a heart attack.

One of the inmates, Nick Kelton, recalled:

“He just fell over.  Looked like an act.  Could have died right there.”

After unsuccessfully shouting for help, the inmates used the force of their weight put together to bust the door to their holding room open so they could alert the authorities on the floors above them by yelling and banging on doors.  The ruckus they created worked, although inmate Floyd Smith said, “They thought we were taking over.”

Deputies entered the room and were able to administer CPR until the paramedics arrived and used a defibrillator on the jailer, whose pulse finally returned.

Captain Mark Arnett credited the prisoners for saving him.

“He could have been there 15 minutes before any other staff walked in and found him.”

This guard had a gun on his person.  He had the key to their handcuffs.  This story could have had a much different ending.  It seems befitting lately that would be the case.

But it looks like these men reacted on human instinct, and human instinct still seems mostly to call upon us to help our fellow man in time of acute distress, even in a place as devoid of decency or hope as a jail cell.

Love, goodness, kindness, and selflessness: these things still exist in this world.  It is important not to lose sight of that.
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