CAMBRIDGE, MASS. (WHDH) - A Cambridge police officer is credited with going above and beyond when he helped a young boy with Autism find his way home on Easter Sunday.
Officer Zachary Kelso was walking his beat near the Central MBTA station that afternoon when he got a concerning radio call from dispatch.
“A concerned citizen called in and said they saw an 8 to 10-year-old boy tiptoeing around in Central Square,” he said.
The 9-year-old boy had wandered all the way there from his home in Somerville with no shoes on and was in desperate need of help. He made it all the way over to a ticket booth where an employee eventually found him hiding inside.
Kelso has been trained on how to deal with a child but not one living with Autism.
“He was seated down – so you know what I did? I got down on one knee and I’m looking at him and I’m like, ‘Hi my name is Zach, what’s your name,” Kelso explained.
The child is nonverbal and Kelso said he was unable to tell him his name or where he lived. So, the officer tried to connect with him on a more natural level.
“I tried to do something that was universal and I stuck my hand out, he grabbed it and we walked all the way up the T steps,” Kelso said.
Finally, after police called surrounding towns, and the boy got a clean bill of health at the Emergency Room, he was reunited with his parents.
“I would say this is the reason I got on the job,” Kelso said. “To help people.”
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