Tiffany Dial stood in the rain, saluting resolutely.
It was January 19, 2019, in Birmingham, Alabama, and the funeral procession for 44-year-old Sergeant Wytasha Carter, who had been killed six days earlier while investigating a robbery, was moving slowly down the street. She was doing her duty without moving, becoming more drenched by the minute, when something changed: she stopped feeling the rain. A man had stood right behind her, holding an umbrella over her head without saying a word, for a full half hour.
The brim of her hat blocked her view, and she never saw him. When she finally turned around, he was already gone. Only afterward did she learn that it was Shawn Allen, an assistant district attorney for Jefferson County and a father of three, who had left his office when he saw the procession pass and decided to act without thinking twice. A witness, Meghan Blankenship, saw it all and ended up crying.
Dial said the gesture taught her something that no speech had ever taught her before: that people really do care about the police officers who risk their lives for others.