WASHINGTON —FOX Nation has awarded Devarjaye “D.J.” Daniel the Young Patriot Award in a televised ceremony, thanking him for his work in “making [law enforcement] cool again.”
“This young patriot has defied the odds, crisscrossed the country, collecting law enforcement badges and breaking a world record in the process,” FOX News anchor Brian Kilmeade said during the awards presentation.
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A video presented onstage highlighted D.J.’s dreams and accomplishments as he joined more than 1,000 law enforcement agencies during the years since his diagnosis.
D.J.’s father, Theodis Daniel, shared his story, detailing his fight against terminal cancer and his initial prognosis of five months to live.
Then, he went on to share how D.J. developed a desire to become a police officer.
It started in 2017, he said, when the community was displaced and taking shelter in downtown Houston from Hurricane Harvey.
“Three officers came out and said, “We’d like to take him out of this nightmare and take him for some pizza.” And that one little pivotal moment in our life, it changed the direction of him,” Daniel said. “He had five months to live, and then all of a sudden, he thinks about being a police officer.”
D.J. and his family began searching out opportunities for him to become an honorary police officer. He set an ambitious goal of being sworn into 100 agencies. Quickly, that goal was raised to 1,000.
“I’ve been to 26 states gathering all these badges. And ain’t nobody going to stop me,” D.J. said.
When D.J. and his father walked onstage to receive his Young Patriot award, they were met with thunderous applause, a standing ovation and “D.J.” chants.
He gave a heart gesture to the audience, before briefly thanking them for coming and mentioning that his father was running for Congress.
Then, award presenters surprised D.J. They invited the three Houston officers he met eight years ago to the stage.
“Now these three gentlemen up here, these officers think that they didn’t do much. … you literally saved my son’s life and you didn’t even know it.”
“D.J, you’ve probably done more for law enforcement in the last few years than we’ve done our entire career. So, you made it cool again. We appreciate you,” one of the officers told him.
As presenters and guests left the stage, D.J. remained – to place presenter Sean Hannity under arrest.
“I’m going to have to pull out my Secret Service badge because it look like you getting arrested today,” D.J. said.
