Photo of Saint John police officer giving breakfast to panhandler goes viral

A photo of a Saint John Police Force officer handing a panhandler a Tim Hortons breakfast has gone viral.

Chris Madsen, a contractor in Saint John, took the photo of the unnamed officer on King Street Friday morning. Madsen has been in uptown Saint John for the past few weeks and has seen the panhandler on occasion.

“(The panhandler) sits in a few little spots. He’s always asking for change or cigarettes. Sometimes you see somebody that walks by that helps him, sometimes you don’t,” says Madsen.

“But everybody’s got a story, you know? We don’t know why that guy’s sitting there and I don’t know where he’s from, but it looks like he’s not having very good luck.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "But everybody's got a story, you know? We don't know why that guy's sitting there and I don't know where he's from, but it looks like he's not having very good luck."

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Madsen says he’s frequently seen the officer having a public presence in uptown Saint John, and felt the photo held additional significance in light of the recent shooting in Fredericton which saw four people die, including two constables.

“It just kind of made me feel good,” he says. “In the wake of what might have happened in Fredericton, I think everybody’s kind of bummed out a little bit. It’s just a good story.”

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In four hours, Madsen’s Facebook post has been shared over 600 times.

He says the reach of the post was unexpected.

“You tend to see a lot of bad things going viral, so it was kind of neat.”

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