The daughter of a cop who was killed in the line of duty was heart-warmingly escorted to her first day of kindergarten by dozens of police officers in Ohio this week.
Five-year-old Lilly was born just two days after her father, Kirkersville police chief Eric Disario, was shot and killed during an incident at a nursing home in 2017.
While her dad might not have been there, two dozen officers across Ohio ensured that his presence wasn't forgotten as they pulled up outside the family home on Wednesday (17 August) to provide her with a ‘walk of honour’ into her new school.
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From there, Lilly was driven to her kindergarten in the back of Licking County Sheriff's Office Detective Adam Beach's police car, the man who had organised the heartfelt gesture.
Take a look at the touching moment below:
"It's all for you because everybody loved your daddy," Eric Disario’s widow Aryn told her daughter in a heartfelt moment captured by Columbus-based news broadcaster WBNS.
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Alongside Licking County Sheriff's Office, departments from Buckeye Lake, Hebron, Granville, Reynoldsburg, Utica, Newark and Kirkersville also took part.
Not only that but representatives from the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the dog warden's office and the Secret Service also arrived to show their support.
Aryn told the news outlet: "It warmed my heart to know that everybody still remembers, and everybody loves and cares for her dad and our family.”
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Eric Disario was fatally shot outside a nursing in May 2017 when gunman Thomas Hartless killed his former girlfriend, who was a nurse at Pine Kirk Care Center, and a fellow nurse's aide.
Although Lilly was never able to meet her father, with her birth coming just two days following his funeral, Aryn said they go above and beyond to keep his memory alive for her.
"We talk about her dad all the time," she added. "Ever since she was able to point and talk she's able to look at a picture of her daddy and know exactly who he is and she's always been able to tell everybody exactly who he is.
"She'll tell everybody he's in heaven with God. I miss my person. My partner. My everything."
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Lisa McLoughlin