Cops double as Good Samaritans

Forest Park police officers James Kenner, right, and Dan Taylor chat with accounting major Cornelius Burch after the officers replaced a basketball stolen from Burch at the YMCA. (Photo by Destini Clark)
Forest Park police officers James Kenner, right, and Dan Taylor chat with accounting major Cornelius Burch after the officers replaced a basketball stolen from Burch at the YMCA. (Photo by Destini Clark)

By Victor Paletta and Destini Clark
The Scene staff

Cornelius Burch is known for always carrying his basketball around Forest Park.

“I never leave the house without it,” said the 20-year-old accounting major.

So when campus police officers James Kenner and Dan Taylor saw Burch empty-handed recently, they asked him what happened. Turns out, his basketball had been stolen at a YMCA.

“We wanted to do something nice for him,” Kenner said. “He’s a good kid.”

Kenner and Taylor pooled their money and spent $57 to buy Burch a new NBA basketball. They presented it to him Tuesday in the Student Center lobby.

“I was very happy and surprised that someone would do something so considerate,” he said.

Burch has been playing basketball since he was 9 years old. He hopes to play with the St. Louis Community College team next fall.