By Paul Thompson

Northeast News

August 3, 2016

KANSAS CITY, Missouri – Angie Rosete was simply hoping to deliver some cool morning air into her young son’s room on Thursday, July 28, when she noticed a police car and an ambulance parked outside of her Historic Northeast home. The scene was quiet, but Rosete couldn’t help but notice an officer and a paramedic comforting a pair of young children in the back of the ambulance. Touched by the tender moment, Rosete snapped a picture.

“I just saw them out there, and I thought it was beautiful. There was only one cop car, and there was nobody out there but them,” said Rosete. “I just it was just so sweet, and so I went out to the porch and took the picture. I had no idea what was going on; I just saw what I saw.”

Rosete soon realized that the scene was not breaking up, and she decided to bring some water bottles out to the officers. As she passed around the hydration and thanked authorities for their service, Rosete began to realize the gravity of the moment. Though she didn’t yet know she’d witnessed the aftermath of a devastating homicide at the 2500 block of Independence Avenue, she began to see disturbing warning signs.

“Here these kids are with the paramedics and the police officers, and there are no parents there,” Rosete recalled. “One of the kids got out of the back, and he had this big stuffed animal. The kids were just kind of hanging out, really. If it wasn’t for the police officers and the fire departments, I think they would have been in a different situation in terms of how they felt.”

Deeply affected by the tenderness of the authorities on the scene, Rosete went back to her porch and snapped another picture. The image she captured, of one officer cradling a baby and another paramedic lovingly tending to a young child, would go on to be viewed by thousands of Kansas Citians on social media.

“Seeing that side made it a little more powerful for me,” said Rosete. “I have a five-month-old baby, so a combination of those two things just made it a little more emotional for me.”

Eventually, Rosete learned the harrowing details that led to the scene outside of her home. A Kansas City, Kansas man had brutally murdered a woman in front of her children. A family had been torn apart.

For Rosete, taking the picture and hearing about the overwhelming response it got from so many others in the metropolitan area was something of a re-affirming experience; a drop of humanity in a sea of tragedy.

“Having a son, seeing all the negative stuff makes me worry, and it makes me feel uncomfortable about the world that he’ll be growing up in,” Rosete said. “It was kind of nice to be able to share something good. This is what happens behind the scenes, and a lot of people don’t get to see it.”