Girl Buys Ice Cream for Troopers After Funeral

A picture of a little girl posing with law enforcement officers following the funeral for a slain Kentucky State Police trooper has gone viral.

The picture of Isabella Gregory and the troopers -- taken by her mother, Sarah Yockey -- was snapped on Friday evening after Trooper Joseph Cameron Ponder was laid to rest in Elizabethtown, according to WDRB-TV.

The 5-year-old and her mother stopped for ice cream at a local McDonald's when the little girl saw six Kentucky troopers along with an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper when she told her mother she wanted to buy them ice cream with her allowance money.

"She used her allowance she earned this past week to put smiles on their faces," Yockey told the news station. "She said, 'Their friend died, and it's not fair because he has a family too.' "

Trooper Eric Homan told WDRB-TV that he and fellow troopers Tony Duncan, Chris Lee, Joseph Boyce, and Pat Hamilton; Detective Jeff Kelley; and Ohio State Highway Patrol Trooper Sgt. Chris Smith stopped to get something to eat and to decompress after the funeral.

"We were finishing up eating and Isabella comes out of nowhere and she's holding a tray of ice cream sundaes," he recalled. "She stepped right in between us all without fear and was so proud to thank us for protecting her and her family."

Homan said that him and his colleagues were tied and had made a long drive to the funeral, but that the little girl's gesture put smiles on their faces.

"Her gifts of ice cream and her words of encouragement was more than a treat for our stomachs," he said. "It lifted our spirits."

Homan shared the photo on his Facebook page and so far it has been shared close to 6,000 times.