10-year-old Houston cancer patient sworn in at over 200 law enforcement agencies becomes honorary Harris County DA Investigator, deputy constable
A 10-year-old who has well overshot his goal of becoming an honorary police officer at 100 area law enforcement agencies has badge No. 222 and a new title to add to his collection: Honorary District Attorney’s Investigator.
Devarjaye “DJ” Daniel received the commendation in person Monday from Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, who praised the youngster who is battling terminal brain and spine cancer, almost four years after he was diagnosed with five months to live.
“We all have a lot of confidence that you, DJ, will fight to uphold our Constitution and our laws, like we do,” Ogg said at a ceremony with her leadership team and a dozen officers from other agencies applauding the boy. “The fact that you want to do this, as a young person, makes us feel great about the difficulties we face every day in fighting crime. To have a new, young, strong, brave ally is exactly what law enforcement needed.”
The boy has made friends and earned headlines around the area as he collected badges and honorifics from law enforcement agencies across Texas.
In addition to being an honorary DA investigator on Monday, he was sworn in as an honorary deputy for several Harris Constable’s offices, including Precinct 1 Constable Alan Rosen, Precinct 3 Constable Sherman Eagleton, Precinct 5 Constable Ted Heap, Precinct 6 Constable Sylvia Trevino and Precinct 7 Constable Mae Walker.
DJ, whose dream is to become a peace officer, surpassed his original goal of being sworn in at 100 law enforcement agencies earlier this month. He said he was inspired by his father, who’s a military veteran and Abigail Arias. Arias, who was an honorary police officer in Freeport, died at 7 years old from a rare cancer in November 2019. DJ’s father said the boy honors her legacy at every ceremony.
DJ’s dad, Theodis Daniel, said his son has now accumulated badges from all over Texas and will likely soon start traveling the country as more than 1,300 agencies from other states have reached out to ask DJ to join their agencies as an honorary officer.
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