Trooper Luke Bonin: Massachusetts Cop Shares A Meal With A Homeless Woman, Photo Of Kind Act Goes Viral
Trooper Luke Bonin of the Massachusetts State Police doesn’t like attention, but he’s getting plenty of it after a photo of him showing an act of kindness to a homeless woman went viral.
As the Huffington Post reports, Bonin’s story began when a mysterious photo showed up on a private Facebook group. The photo shows a suit-clad man sitting on the bumper of his SUV, pulled over to the side of the road, eating a meal. In the grass and bramble behind him is a homeless woman, who had been panhandling.
Great photo: Massachusetts Trooper Luke Bonin stops to share a meal with homeless woman along the side of the road. pic.twitter.com/AXd8tTE9gF
— Greg Floyd (@CBS6Greg) May 18, 2016
The photo eventually made its way to the attention of the Massachusetts State Police, where at first, it was a mystery.
As the MSP explained in a Facebook post, “We were shown this picture from a third-party who had not taken the photo, nor knew anything about it, other than they thought it was taken in Fall River.”
It took some investigating, but eventually the pieces started to fall into place.
According to dBTechno, the photo was shot by Jake Morse, who happened to drive by while Bonin and the homeless woman were having their meal.
He posted the picture to a private Facebook group with the caption, “And they say chivalry is dead… Much respect.”
The woman in the picture has been identified as Lynn Murphy, a homeless mother of four, according to CBS Boston. She says that she was out panhandling when Bonin drove by. A few minutes later, he returned and stepped out of his SUV. Murphy, fearing that she was about to cited for panhandling, told the trooper that she’d leave the area. But instead, Bonin produced two meals and told her to pick one.
“I thought he was just going to hand me the meal but when he said, ‘Come around the back, it’s such a beautiful day, we’ll have a picnic,’ I thought that was, it touched my heart. He didn’t know me from Adam. I’m a homeless panhandler. And he took the time out of his day, went and bought us lunch, and had it with me.”
Bonin, for his part, even though his actions that day are at the heart of the story, has been circumspect about his role in it.
According to MSP spokesperson David Procopio, “We had to pull the story out of him.”
In a Facebook post, the MSP acknowledged Bonin’s humility while praising him for his actions that day.
“Yes, Trooper Bonin, we know you do not want or expect publicity. We know you didn’t want to be noticed, but you were, and the job is proud of you. We commend you for your selfless act, and for “doing the right thing” for someone less fortunate than most people.”
This is not the first time a photo of a police officer going above and beyond the call of duty has gone viral. In December 2014, according to this Inquisitr report, a Kansas City police officer was caught by a passerby comforting two lost dogs.
Picture Of Kansas City Cop Comforting Two Lost Dogs Goes Viral http://t.co/VNsLcua1Fp pic.twitter.com/RflX7BSVgQ
— Inquisitr News (@theinquisitr) February 17, 2015
The dogs had gotten loose from their yard, and, confused and scared, somehow made it the side of a busy road. The unnamed Kansas City cop sat on the grass, in the dead of winter, and petted and comforted the dogs while waiting for Animal Control. Fortunately, the dogs were reunited with their owners.
As of this writing, the photo of Trooper Luke Bonin sharing a meal with a homeless woman has been “liked” aver 137,000 times and “shared” over 46,000 times.
[Image via Facebook]
