HOUSTON — A man is facing several felony charges including child endangerment and DWI after leading deputies on a high-speed case Sunday.
The man arrested had four young children inside at the time. Video from the scene of a Harris County deputy cradling one of the children has gone viral.
Hundreds of people have commented on the video circulating on social media.
“It shows that you definitely have caring heart by the way you’re holding that little one,” said one person on social.
“God bless those kids and the officer,” posted another. “You can tell that he is a father. He’s handling the baby with such care,” said someone in another comment.
The video on KHOU 11’s Instagram page has received well over 80,000 views. A lot of you wanted to know the man behind the badge.
“I’m a father, so my first thing was to grab the baby. As soon as I grabbed the baby, I grabbed the other children. I just hugged them tight,” said Julian Almeida, 28.
Almeida, who is a five-year veteran with the Harris County Constables Office, recently joined the sheriff’s office in May.
"Totality of circumstances. You could see as clear as day that the back window, you could see children in the back immediately,” he said describing Sunday’s scene.
He says in that moment, he did what any other father would do.
“All I could do there is hug them tight like they were my own and tell them it’s going to be OK."
Almeida says that’s one of the reasons he became a police officer,
"Before I was police officer. I was son, I was a brother, a friend, a husband and then a father," he said.
He says he hopes the video will help bridge the gap between law enforcement and the community.
"People don’t want to see police officers as regular people,” Almeida said. “It’s not only me there’s others actually, other officers out there that would do the same ."