MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WSMV) – A Murfreesboro police sergeant’s bodycam video showing him buying toys for a non-verbal boy with autism who wandered into a Target store has drawn tens of thousands of views online.
Sgt. Travis Henderson, a 20-year veteran of the Murfreesboro Police Department, responded after a bystander called police when she saw the boy running across the street and into the store’s toy section. The boy had gotten out of his mother’s car at a nearby restaurant where she was picking up food.
‘Kids are going to be kids’
Henderson said calls involving children wandering away from their parents are not uncommon — but this one stood out.
“Kids are going to be kids. They often wander away. So this is actually a normal occurrence for us,” Henderson said. “When I found out that he was wearing headphones and was not responding at all, I knew it was a little different and just worked it the best way I knew how.”
Crisis intervention training shaped his response
Henderson said his crisis intervention training guided how he approached the boy in the toy aisle…