Deputy practices Golden Rule, helps homeless family

HAMILTON, Ohio — A sheriff's deputy quietly went out of his way to help a homeless family sitting in his jail's lobby earlier this week.

Deputy Brian Bussell, who has worked for the Butler County Sheriff's Office for 25 years, saw a woman and her two children waiting in the jail lobby Sunday and asked if they needed help. She told him she had been evicted from her Oxford, Ohio, home and was on a waiting list for housing assistance, according to the sheriff's office.

Bussell and Miranda Sheppard, a dispatch supervisor, called several shelters that day to try to find a place for the family to stay.

"Most of the shelters were overcrowded or there was a time requirement to be there, and we were past that," said Bussell, whose suburban Cincinnati county is home to almost 375,000 people. So, he booked a hotel in Oxford, which has about 22,000 residents, for two days and paid for it himself.

Bussell also took the family to Walmart for clothes, where the young boys asked for shoes, and paid for everything.

"This is a true act of kindness," Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said. "He did not tell anyone at work what he had done, but the lady took a picture with him and posted it to Facebook."

She asked that her name not be used but wanted to commend the officer.

The image of Bussell with his arms around the woman's two sons was liked by more than 1,300 people and shared more than 450 times. The sheriff's office found out about Bussell's act of kindness when someone called to ask about the photo.

"I am pleased that he was able to help this family out," Jones said. "This speaks volumes in lieu of all the recent negativity people are saying about law enforcement."