Cop Calms Agitated Autistic Boy With Push-Up Contest and People Are Loving It

Working with somebody that is autistic can sometimes be difficult, just ask Christy Richardson, the mother of an autistic boy.

“When you deal with a child with autism, there’s not a lot of help out here,” said Richardson, whose son, Bubba, was having a particularly bad day.

“He gets agitated very easily, and it got to the point it was a little out of control – so we called an officer out,” said Richardson.

Bradley County Patrol Deputy Corey Loftis was the officer who responded to the scene and told News Channel 9 in Chattanooga that from the moment he arrived, it was clear Bubba was upset.

With so much attention paid to officer-involved shootings across the country, Richardson said she wasn’t sure how Loftis might react to Bubba.

“I do believe that there should be some kind of training because we’ve had other officers that just didn’t know how to deal with [him], started yelling, [and] made the situation worse,” she said.

What Loftis did instead is drawing praise from thousands on social media.

Richardson posted an image of Bubba with Officer Loftis doing, of all things, push-ups.

“They both had me laughing,” wrote Richardson in her now-viral post.

Bubba acknowledged the push-ups worked.

“Well, he talked and all that first and then to calm me down, he did push-ups with me,” said Bubba.

Of course, Loftis doesn’t think he did anything special. He was just happy he could help.

“It gave me a chance to kind of unplug for a second, but it also gave me a chance to help him out,” said Officer Loftis.

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