A young girl went to school with her very own police escort on Thursday. The five-year-old girl is the daughter of Justin Winebrenner, a murdered police officer from Akron, Ohio. Winebrenner was killed by an ill-behaved customer at a bar in November 2014, KCTV 5 News reported.
The police officers gathered at the Turkeyfoot Elementary School to send young Charlee on her first day.
"They promised they'd take care of her and be there on the first day of kindergarten, and that they'd be there the day she walked down the aisle," said the girl's grandfather Rob Winebrenner, according to Eyewitness News 3.
"It's a really emotional time for me anyways, but I know that they will always be there for her, and it helps knowing that I don't have her father there anymore to go to, but I have all of these guys behind me to go to," said Alyse Shanafelt, Charlee's mother.
Winebrenner was in the police force for more than seven years and was raised by a retired officer as well.
"If there's any good that comes from this evil, this tragedy, it is when Charlee Ayn is old enough to understand even more than today, that when she hears courage, bravery, duty, honor, she will have a picture of her father," said Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic during the officer's funeral mass, Cleveland 19 reported.
Suspect Kenan Ivery will face the death penalty when sentenced with the crime. The trial will begin on Sept. 8.
