Instead of Speeding Ticket, Officer Gives Prayer

Instead of Speeding Ticket, Officer Gives Prayer

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Kootenai County Sheriff's patrol car. (Courtesy of Kootenai County Sheriff website))
Kootenai County Sheriff’s patrol car. (Courtesy of Kootenai County Sheriff website))

A woman who was about to get a speeding ticket, received a prayer from a Kootenai County Sheriff’s deputy instead.

Deputy Matthew Brakeman said he pulled over a woman identified as RaeAnn Kuykendall, in Hayden, Idaho, a couple of weeks ago.

Kuykendall was going about 10 miles over the speed limit, according to KREM-TV.

“Driver was not happy to be stopped,” Brakeman said. “So I spoke to her for a moment.”

But something about the woman’s aura gave Brakeman the impression that something was not quite right.

“I asked where they were headed, and she said to the oncologist,” Brakeman told KREM. “She then started to become a little bit emotional.”

The officer learned the driver’s mother—who was in the passenger seat—is battling cancer. They were on their way to see a doctor.

Brakeman walked back to his patrol car and contemplated on how he should handle the situation.

“[I] walked back up to the passenger side and asked her mother if she would accept a prayer,” Brakeman said. “And she said, ‘Absolutely.’ So then we prayed and told them to have a good day and went back to my car.”

According to Brakeman, he and the woman have not been in direct contact since the incident.

But Kuykendall took to the department’s Facebook page, and wrote about what had transpired between her and the officer that day.

“Needless to say I emotionally lost it but thankful for him pulling me over at that moment and offering his kindness to us. I don’t know the officer’s (name) that stopped me but I want to thank him for his blessings and for hope,”she wrote.

There’s a reason Brakeman did what he did—as opposed to handing out a speeding ticket.

“I lost my mom to cancer, and I know the feeling,” he said.

“There’s a letter of the law, and there’s the spirit of the law. These particular folks, I don’t think they were violating the spirit of the law, they were violating the letter. I think they needed some love. We all do.”