NEWS

Trooper pays it forward on hot day

Sarah Fowler
The Clarion-Ledger

A Mississippi Highway Patrolman went “above and beyond” the call of duty last week when he helped a man and young child stranded on the side of the highway.

Jeremy Cannon and Trooper Andrew Beaver

Trooper Andrew Beaver was patrolling the area of Hwy. 45 alternate in Lowndes County last Friday when he spotted a truck with the hood up on the side of the road.

Jeremy Cannon, 24, was under the hood of the disabled Ford Ranger, trying to diagnose the truck’s problem.

Cannon’s one-year-old nephew, Marlon, sat in the truck’s front seat. The Mississippi heat had already hit 95 degrees, even though it wasn’t yet 11 a.m.

Cannon, who is obtaining his master’s in health in human performance at the University of Southern Mississippi, was on his way to West Point to visit his mother, Angela Wells.

When the truck broke down, Cannon called his mother. Although Wells was on her way to pick up her son and grandchild, Cannon said he was beginning to seriously worry about the effect of the heat on his young nephew.

“The heat was unbearable,” Cannon said Tuesday. “I was already sweaty, I was worrying he was going to get too hot.”

Cannon said he had been on the side of the road for approximately 20 minutes when Beaver pulled up.

The two briefly spoke about the truck’s problems when Beaver offered to let Cannon and the toddler wait in his air-conditioned vehicle.

“It was 100 degrees outside,” Beaver said. “There’s no need for them to sit on the side of the road and me leave.”

While the three were sitting in the front seat of running car, Beaver asked Cannon if he had called a tow truck. Cannon said he had not and couldn’t afford one.

In that moment, Beaver said he felt a call from God telling him to help Cannon. Beaver called a tow truck and told Cannon he would pay for the tow.

“I believe it was God telling me,” Beaver said. “He put it on my heart to say that.

That’s our job, too, as state troopers. Out of my pocket or out of (the highway patrol’s), we take care of the citizens of Mississippi.”

He added, “I felt like, when something’s on your heart like that, I cant afford to do it for everybody but it felt like something I should do,” Beaver said.

Cannon said he was “overwhelmed” when Beaver offered to pay for the tow truck.

“I had to thank him several times, I didn’t expect that,” Cannon said. “He didn’t even have to stop for us. It was a blessing. It had to be God.”

When Wells arrived, she offered to pay Beaver. Beaver declined. The one thing the young trooper asked in return, however, was that Cannon pay it forward.

“All I asked is that they do something good down the road for somebody else,” Beaver said. “Start a chain reaction and pay it forward.”

Cannon, who is back in Hattiesburg, said he intends to honor the trooper’s request.

“When the opportunity presents itself, I’ll be happy to. I feel like I have to. He didn’t have to do that. To be all that he wanted in return, I feel like I have to.

Wells said she would always be grateful to Beaver.

“I know that he was a God sent because not many people would have stopped, let alone allow him to sit in the car,” Wells said. "He went above and beyond to me, above and beyond. In this day, I probably wouldn’t have stopped myself. If he didn’t stop that would have been understandable.”

Wells shared a picture of Cannon and Beaver on her social media page to remind people “Not all officers are bad.”

“There is so much tension now, on both sides, with officers as well as the community, I wanted people to see that not all officers are bad,” she said.

She added, “He will never ever imagine how I feel. He helped the two people who are ever dear to my heart. I am so grateful; words cannot express my level of gratitude because in this day and age, that doesn’t happen. I will never ever forget it.”

Beaver brushed off the compliment, saying, “I honestly can tell you there isn’t one person on the highway patrol who wouldn’t have done the same thing that I did.”

For Cannon, however, Beaver’s act of kindness is one that he won’t soon forget.

“I just thank God he stopped and had the heart to help me because I sure appreciated it and I needed the help,” he said.

Contact Sarah Fowler at sfowler@gannett.com or (601) 961-7303. Follow @FowlerSarah on Twitter.