Georgia girl, 6, spends day as a New York City Police Department officer
MANHATTAN -- Not every 6-year-old girl gets to spend a beautiful Friday afternoon riding a police horse, getting a police badge or taking an official oath with NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill presiding.
But not everyone is facing stage 4 cancer either. Karma Little is battling neuroblastoma, and after several surgeries, has lost half her stomach and one of her kidneys.
She's from Georgia, but is getting treatment in New York at Memorial Sloan Kettering.
"This past trial that we did last month finally made some breakthrough with her. We had some shrinkage. We're doing the trial again this month and she's hanging in there," Jennifer Little, Karma's mother, said. "It's been rough, but she's hanging in there."
During one of her many rounds of chemotherapy, Karma met NYPD officer Sara Moran in the hospital.
"She says to me, 'oh my goodness, I didn't know girls could be cops.' She said 'are you real?'," Moran said. "So, I said 'absolutely', and from that moment on, we just developed such a strong bond."
On Friday, the men, and especially the women, in blue rolled out a huge red carpet for Karma, making her an honorary officer in the Central Park precinct. After taking the oath, she toured the precinct, took part in roll call, patrolled the finish line of a marathon and mingled with many of the NYPD's finest.
"She won't stop showing everybody her new uniform, her new shield. She's very excited," Moran said.
Karma could barely contain her smile, a welcome escape for a young girl who has endured so much and deserved a salute.
"It's a great blessing for her," her mother said.
Karma now knows female officers are indeed real -- and so is compassion.
