Told by the child’s grandmother that the boy was sleeping in the burning home, Officer Joe Hudson, a 14-year veteran of the Griffin (Ga.) PD, rescued the 3-year-old boy on March 16. This bodycam footage shows the fraught and hectic rescue.

Officer Hudson, who has three children of his own, was initially reluctant to speak about the incident.

“After talking with some of my co-workers who pointed out everything that’s been going on nowadays with police, I wanted to,” he said. “It’s good for people to see we are human and we have children of our own. Ninety-nine percent of us aren’t trying to arrest people. We are trying to protect people and take care of our community.”