A Wish Comes True

The Make-A-Wish-Foundation has done it again. Darrien Salter was one happy little boy and what child wouldn’t be? Darrien’s wish was the 4,000th granted by the Make-A-Wish-Foundation of Georgia and Alabama. Darrien’s grandfather was a policeman in Evergreen Alabama and Darrien decided that’s what he wanted to be, too. His mother said,” He really wants to get all the bad guys off the street.

A uniform shop donated his uniform and all the accessories. Darrien donned his uniform complete with Stetson hat, handcuffs, and flashlight and went out on the streets with Lt. William Hegwood as Officer Salter, badge no.1273. They attended the Smyrna Police Department shift meeting and patrolled the neighborhood. Undercover cops were glad to cooperate and play the bad guys. First, Darrien ticketed a driver who ran a stop sign. Then arrested a man trying to break into a building with a crowbar. He talked on the radio and turned on the blue light in the patrol car.

At the end of the shift he typed up his report with the hunt and peck system using one finger. Hegwood joked,” He writes reports better than most of us.”

Darrien has neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder of the nervous system. Darrien’s disease is life threatening but not terminal. He has seizures and sometimes stops breathing so he has to be rushed to the hospital. His mother says he has three tumors on the brain, two on the optic nerve, and 60 or 70 spots on his body that rise up to be tumors.” So we’ve got a battle ahead.” she said

“When you put on your uniform you become Officer Salter.” Officer Milton Lane told him, “When you take it off you are Darrien again.”