8-year-old girl traveling country to spread hugs to law enforcement officers

A little girl from Louisiana is traveling across the country to show support for law enforcement.

At just 8-years-old, Rosalyn Baldwin holds no reservations about hugging strangers. But on Friday, she did it with someone else in mind.

“Today I’m wearing a band with the numbers 5110,” Rosalyn said.

Badge number 5110 belonged to fallen Detroit police officer Glenn Doss. She proudly showed off his numbers on an armband to a crowd of police officers in Hammond.

She was driven here, she says, by a higher calling.

FOX 32: what made you want to start hugging police?

“God,” she said.

It started with the back to back deaths of police officers in a matter of weeks in 2016: five killed in a Dallas ambush, and three others killed in Baton Rouge. It pulled the 8-year-old into a mission that would take her to 30 states, so far, giving hugs to hundreds of officers along the way, all with the single purpose of saying “thanks.”

Law enforcement gathered in Hammond to hold a memorial to remember their own fallen, listening to Rosalyn fearlessly taking the podium with a final message.

“My love, your love, God's love can unite our country. Love can break any pain. Can break hurt. Love can break any chain,” she said.