Dad Serving in Afghanistan Can't Attend Daughter's Kindergarten Graduation, Local Police Come Instead

Mesa Officer Shawn Prinkey is currently serving in Afghanistan.

ByABC News
May 20, 2015, 2:21 PM
The Mesa Police Department attended Sophia Prinkey's kindergarten graduation, because her father and Mesa police officer Shawn Prinkey is serving in the military in Afghanistan.
The Mesa Police Department attended Sophia Prinkey's kindergarten graduation, because her father and Mesa police officer Shawn Prinkey is serving in the military in Afghanistan.
Courtesy Mesa Police Department

— -- Most graduates invite their family and close friends to the ceremony -- but one Arizona kindergarten student got to bring the local police department to hers.

Shawn Prinkey is a motorcycle officer and 14-year veteran of the Mesa Police Department. As a part-time member of the military, Prinkey is also serving in the Army in Afghanistan and couldn't make his daughter Sophia's kindergarten graduation on May 13.

So his fellow Mesa police officers decided to attend the event for him instead.

"The graduation ceremony event was put together by a fellow Mesa Police Department officer and friend of his, whose wife is also a teacher at the same school," Mesa Police Det. Esteban Flores told ABC News. "They worked together with the school and with Prinkey's motor squad to make it happen."

Several police officers posed for photos with the proud kindergarten graduate, and Sophia even got to sit on one of the police department motorcycles.

"There’s a lot of our officers in the military," Flores said. "And they all look out for each other."