Photo of police officer comforting lost boy goes viral

CROWLEY, La. -- The hug that launched a thousand likes - the story behind the photo that has garnered a Louisiana police officer a lot of praise online and in his hometown.

"We were walking through looking at things, and we saw the police officer with the little boy that was lost," said Betty Thomas, who took the photo, told KLFY-TV.

What many find most heartwarming about this photo is the boy falling asleep in Officer David Taylor's arms.

Thomas says she knows this is part of an officer's job, but it was still so sweet to actually see it.

"Understand that he helped the little boy for quite a while until he helped the mother, and that was just really great to see him. And he was just showing him the sights and holding him and keeping him comfortable," Thomas said.

"He was extremely upset...I put him on my shoulders to see if he would be able to see his parents," Taylor said. "He started to fall asleep, and I moved him down to my chest."

Taylor, who has worked at the Crowley Police Department for 18 months, told ABC News that he's not a fan of all the attention he's gotten, saying he was just doing his job.

"What I was doing is nothing different from the rest of our law enforcement colleagues. The only difference is that someone took a photo of me," he said, adding that he doesn't know the name of the child or of the boy's mother.

Carolyn Senegal recently moved to Crowley from Lake Charles.

Senegal says it's refreshing to see just a part of the true meaning of protecting and serving the community.

"I think it's awesome because we hear so much negative things about our police officers today," she said. "I'm happy to say that I've seen something that's a positive image. That's an officer going above and beyond the call of duty."

Chief K.P. Gibson says he is proud of Officer Taylor and all of his officers. Gibson says he wishes the public would see more of what he sees them do every day.