A 91-year-old Arkansas police officer is inspiring those around him with his upbeat work ethic and attitude of loving others.
After having served in law enforcement for nearly five decades, police officer L.C. “Buckshot” Smith plans to keep on working.
Despite his age, Buckshot is still on duty with the Camden Police Department, in the city where he was born and raised, reported THV-11 News.
Buckshot told the TV station that when people ask him when he is going to retire, he tells them, “When the good Lord says so.”
After 46 years with the Ouachita County Sheriff’s Office, Buckshot retired. However, it didn’t last long, as four months later, he was back at work to join the Camden police, the report stated.
“I feel like, I live longer at my age to keep on working,” Buckshot told the outlet.
The elderly hero isn’t only motivated to work to stay active. Rather, he says it is his passion to serve people.
“I love people. I love to help people,” he said.
The nonagenarian officer is a bit of a community grandfather, the kind of man who knows everyone, and everyone knows him.
Mike Sherman, a Camden resident and a good friend of Buckshot, according to THV-11 News, said: “The thing with Buckshot is he’s been around so long, when someone says I know everybody, Buckshot knows everybody.”
Buckshot, who will turn 92 in May, attributes his health and longevity to staying active and eating well.
“I eat a lot of vegetables,” he said. “I don’t eat too much fast food.”
Buckshot’s work ethic is also an inspiration to the other police officers, particularly the young recruits at the Camden Police Department.
“This gun and this badge don’t make a police officer. You got to want to do it,” Buckshot told THV-11 News.
According to the report, Lt. Jamario Bush, who has been with the Camden Police Department for eight years, himself “looks up to” Buckshot.
Bush said Buckshot actively talks to the new recruits, giving them a “life lesson on how to get into police work and how to stay in police work.”
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