If it weren’t for an email, one Toronto police officer’s simple act of buying a hungry man a meal would have slipped away unnoticed.
The city was experiencing a “really cold day” when Regent Park cop Ed Parks noticed a man standing at a street corner during a patrol. When he stopped to speak with the man, he noticed he was mumbling and stuttering his words.
He said he grew concerned for the man’s safety.
“I asked him about his sugar and he told me he was diabetic,” Parks said in a video uploaded Tuesday, explaining what happened that day. “So I said to him, ‘Would you like to go inside and get a coffee and a cookie?’”
Once inside a cafe, the homeless man told parks he was hungry. So Parks bought him lunch.
The email from a neighbourhood resident praising the Good Samaritan gesture prompted Toronto Police Service to identify Parks — and the man he helped.
Toronto cop Ed Parks with the unnamed homeless man he bought lunch for. (Photo: Toronto Police Service)
“Officers who go out of their way to ensure all citizens are okay renew my faith in the police,” it read.
Though his act may be perceived as extraordinary to some, Parks is brushing off accolades recognizing him as a hero.
The email was just a response to the community police work neighbourhood cops do every day, he said.
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