Grant Pierre Jr. knows what a good police officer looks like. He saw it first hand through his father, Grant Pierre Sr., who served for 34 years.

As one of five boys, Pierre remembers his dad coming home and telling his sons to keep quiet while he got some well-deserved rest.

That didn’t mean others in their Edgard neighborhood wouldn’t stop by to speak with Grant Pierre Sr.

The boys would always say, at first, their father was sleeping. If the visitor persisted, someone would wake Grant Pierre Sr., and the response was always the same.

“I’ve never seen him turn anyone down for help, no matter what the problem was,” Pierre said of his father. “He tried to help the best way he could. That was 100 percent of the time.”

That example stays with Pierre today as he works as a sergeant with the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office. That driving force became action recently when an older couple found themselves stuck in St. John Parish.

According to Pierre, the couple was traveling from Texas in a recently purchased vehicle destined as a gift for their daughter in Metairie. Unfortunately, the vehicle broke down in St. James Parish. A state trooper arranged for the vehicle to get professionally serviced and went about bringing the couple to Metairie.

The trooper got in touch with the daughter in Metairie, who said her parents were not welcome and would not be allowed in her home.

Obviously distressed, Pierre said, the couple asked to be let out and just started walking without much of a plan. They were in Kenner, the woman was in a wheelchair and they started heading west.

They were eventually picked up again and brought to the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office.

It was there Pierre came to learn their story, which meant it was time to act. He told his commanding officer, Lt. Jason Raborn, that he wanted to find a hotel for the couple and would, naturally, pay for it. Pierre said Raborn immediately offered to pay for half the room and even found accommodations for the couple at the LaPlace Best Western.

When neither Pierre or Raborn could accommodate the woman’s wheelchair, Deputy Daniel Materne was called in to drive the couple to the hotel. As soon as Materne heard the story, he offered the help pay, with the officers eventually splitting the room’s cost three ways. Pierre made his way to the hotel, because he knew the couple would be hungry and would not have the means for a meal.

“It was kind of like pulling teeth for them to tell me what they wanted to eat,” he said. “They actually wanted to get something off a dollar menu. I’m like, ‘are y’all kidding me right now? I’m giving y’all the option to get whatever you want to eat and it’s on me. It’s not a problem.’ I started naming what we had. Finally, the guy was like, ‘if I could have a couple of pieces of chicken and some mashed potatoes, I would be fine.’ I was like, ‘dude, you’re fine.’”

After he dropped off the couple’s food, things became emotional.

“They wanted to hug, stood over me and said a quick prayer — not only for myself but for fellow law enforcement officers,” Pierre said. “I wasn’t expecting that to happen and was very appreciative. That was very touching.”

When I asked Pierre what his father thought of the story, he said he hadn’t told him and that is was not about recognition.

“I was taught whenever you see someone stranded or needing help, you don’t turn your back on them,” he said. “It just so happens Lt. Michelle Piearson somehow found out and wound up writing a letter on my behalf.”

That letter led to a recent recognition for Pierre and some well-deserved attention for his fellow law enforcement officers, all of whom helped when no one was looking.

“I have never been interested in working in any other parish,” Pierre says today. “This is home, where I grew up and where I can give back the most, like my dad did. I love my home, my parish. To me, there is no better way to give back than by being a police officer.”

Stephen Hemelt is publisher and editor of L’OBSERVATEUR. He can be reached at 985-652-9545 or stephen.hemelt@lobservateur.com.