Two New York state troopers paid for a woman's $700 flight to Florida last week so she could attend the funeral of a childhood friend killed in the mass shooting at Majory Stoneman Douglas High School, NBC News reports.
Robert Troy and Thomas Karasinski met Jordana Judson, 23, at New York's LaGuardia airport Thursday, one day after 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire at Douglas, killing 17 and injuring at least 17.
Judson, who graduated from Douglas, told NBC News she showed up at the airport to find a ticket so she could fly to Florida for the funeral of Meadow Pollack, 18, and to be with her brother, who still lived in Florida and was close to Pollack's brother.
"As soon as I got out of the car at the airport, I started hysterically crying," she said.
Troy and Karasinski asked Judson if she was OK and helped her inside to the JetBlue Airways stand where an agent told her a one-way flight would cost her $700, a price Judson could not afford. When Judson asked for a bereavement discount, the airline company would not accommodate her.
That is when the state troopers handed over their credit cards.
"I look up, and the state troopers are standing there, and they're both handing over their credit cards," she recalled. "I'm telling them that they don't have to do this. This is crazy. They said: 'It's already done. We want you to be home with their families. This is a tough time.'"
Troy said it was the right thing to do.
"The sense of just being there for your family and friends, you want to be there for them. You're going to go through anything to get there," he said.
"I know. I have five little sisters. If that was one of them, I'd want someone to help them out," he said of Judson. "It was a sigh of relief. She was more in shock that we paid for her ticket."
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