NYPD swears in 6-year-old from Georgia
LOWER 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 here 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. "It's been rough, but she's hanging in there."
During one of her many rounds of chemotherapy, Karma met New York City Police Department 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?'," said Moran. "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, patroled the finish of line of the marathon and mingled with many of the NYPD's female 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 today, a welcome escape for a young girl who has endured so much and deserved today's salute.
"It's a great blessing for her ...," said Little.
Karma now knows female officers are indeed real -- and so is compassion.
