Right now, people are outside protesting police brutality. Unfortunately, many Black people are still dying unnecessarily. But there are still plenty of people out there who are doing the best they can to show their appreciation for other humans.
Daylan McLee is one of those people. He's a Black man who sadly did time for a crime he didn't commit. Back in 2016, he helped dissolve a bar fight after going to pick up his sister. People claimed that Daylan held the gun in question and fired. But that wasn't the case. Instead, he disarmed the man with the firearm — and video footage backed him up.
However, he still had to wait in jail for his trial, which took a year. Luckily, he was acquitted by a jury. But it makes sense for anyone to still feel a bit of anger after losing a year to a false claim. He filed a wrongful arrest lawsuit in 2018. Overall, he believes that the police officers involved lied about what they saw.
That said, Daylan managed to forgive and forget when he saw an officer in need of help.
Daylan spotted a police officer trapped in a police cruiser that had crashed. It was moments before the vehicle would go up in flames. Watching the scenario take place, he knew he had to do something — and he had to move as fast as he could.
"There is value in every human life," he'd later tell the Associated Press. "We are all children of God and I can't imagine just watching anyone burn. No matter what other people have done to me, or other officers, I thought, 'This guy deserves to make it home safely to his family.'"
Daylan heard a loud noise, which is what prompted him to go outside. When he saw the officer in need of some assistance, he wasted no time. "I don't know what came across me, but I ripped the door open and just pulled him to safety across the street," he said.
Uniontown Police Lt. Thomas Kolencik was impressed by Daylan's intuition to act fast — especially since he ended up saving a life. "Daylan actually said, 'I'm not going to let him die,'" Kolencik said to WTAE-Pittsburgh, per AP. "There's just no words to describe, you know."
Daylan's heroic action is even more impressive due to the current movement happening in the world. After the wrongful death of George Floyd while in police custody, the Black Lives Matter movement has been receiving more attention. Many people — such as Daylan — have been unfairly labeled by authority figures due to their skin color.
As a Black man, Daylan knows he's at a disadvantage. "Some people may think I look intimidating … and I can't hate the trooper who shot at me for what he doesn't know," Daylan said, per People magazine. "I don't want to be called a hero. I just want to be known as an individual who is an upstanding man."
As it turns out, Daylan was actually familiar with the man he rescued. His name is Officer Jay Hanley, and Daylan always appreciated the way he said hello to the neighbors. That said, he likely had no idea that he'd one day be saving his life.
"I just think this is a lesson that no matter what we're going through with the police brutality or with the people brutality on police, whichever way it goes, this is the way things should be handled and this is the love we should give and help our community as civilians," Daylan said to ABC News, per People. It's proof that when it comes to life and death, Daylan will always choose life — regardless of how unfairly he was treated in the past.
Unfortunately, the incident in which he was jailed wasn't the only run-in that Daylan has had with the police in his life. Just a few months ago, officers dressed in plain clothes pointed guns at him after Daylan was leaving a porch gathering. They didn't announce that they were the police at first.
But the second Daylan realized, he put his hands up and treated them with respect. He was charged with fleeing and resisting arrest, and he left the event with injuries. An officer reportedly kicked him in the face through the fence and split his lip. Daylan states there's video footage of the incident, and he plans on fighting his charges.
While the incident was scary and unnecessary, he believes that forgiveness is important. "We need to work on our humanity," he said. "That's the main problem of this world. We're stuck on how to get up or to get even, and that is not how I was raised to be."
"You learn, you live, you move on and I was always taught to forgive big," he continued. "You can't base every day of your life off of one interaction you have with one individual." The police have made it clear that they not only appreciate the help he gave, but the fact that he was willing to look past the other incidents while in the moment.
"To know that whatever issues that he has had with police in the past, and to look beyond that marked police car and the uniform and to see a human being who needed help, we are just really grateful," Trooper Robert Broadwater said to the AP. It seems as if Daylan's actions will never be forgotten by the squad.
The one person who's not shocked about Daylan's actions? Daylan's lawyer. Supposedly, it's just like him to think of the needs of others. "Over the course of his life, Daylan McLee has had multiple, unjustified encounters with police officers just because of the color of his skin," attorney Alec Wright said. "Those encounters make him the perfect candidate to hate and resent the police. But, that is not Daylan … The answer is not to disregard human life; the answer is to accept it for all that it is. That is Daylan."
