VIRGINIA COP PLAYED DOLLS WITH KIDS AFTER A GAS LEAK SCARE

A South Hill police officer in Virginia finished a gas-leak call on February 14, 2019, then lay down on the sidewalk to play dolls with kids who were outside the apartment complex. Cpl. C.B. Fleming made the move after a mother told him her daughter and other children were afraid of cops, and she filmed what happened next.

Fleming was sent to the Mecklenburg Manor apartments after a report of a suspected gas leak. It was a false alarm. He had been on the force for 15 years, and he did not leave right away.

Police Chief Stuart Bowen told ABC News that Fleming “saw an opportunity to go out and speak to these kids and show them the positive side of a police officer.”

Bowen said the message was simple: “no reason to be afraid.”

As for why police were at a fire call in the first place, Bowen said officers are dispatched to gather information for the volunteer fire department. Once the call was cleared, Fleming moved on to a different kind of work.

The mom behind the camera

Iesha Roper-Boswell recorded the scene and posted the video on Facebook. Police1 described her as a 28-year-old mother of one of the children.

She told WTVR she had just finished telling Fleming about the fear. “I was telling him that my daughter, my niece, and some of the other children here were afraid of cops,” she said.

Photos show him stretched out on his stomach on the pavement, right at kid level, playing with dolls and drawing with sidewalk chalk. WDBJ7 reported that the video also shows him singing music from Moana and showing the kids his police car, which he called the “Bat-Mobile.”

CNN reported that Roper-Boswell started filming because her niece did not cry. “It was amazing that my niece didn’t break out into tears,” she said. She told WTVR she did not film it expecting it to go viral.

Her Facebook post described the false alarm turning into a play session and thanked Fleming for taking the time with the children, KRIS-TV reported.

“He’s awesome. That’s the only word you can really use to describe C.B.,” she told WTVR. “It’s just amazing, the bond he has with the children.” She also said the kids “need someone who they feel is a superhero.”

Not his first time

Bowen said this was not a one-off. “This isn’t the first time he’s done something like this,” he said. “I think he just enjoyed interacting with them because that’s just the kind of person he is.”

The chief called Fleming an “outstanding person” with an “infectious personality.” He also said Fleming is a “very strong family man” with four kids of his own who has fostered two other children.

WTVR described Fleming as a 42-year-old corporal and said the children gathered around him as soon as the station visited the complex. South Hill, which WSET reported is about 90 miles southwest of Richmond and home to about 4,000 people, is the kind of town where a video like this travels fast.

Police1 reported the clip had more than 10,000 views. Police Magazine separately reported more than 45,000 views within a few days.

Fleming told WTVR that connecting with kids was something he had always tried to do. “When I got into this job, I knew there was something different, other than just writing tickets and being the bad person all the time,” he said.

He also told the station he hoped his actions, and those of fellow officers, would lead to real change in police-community relations.