Baton Rouge Woman Prays With ‘Someone Outside My Race,’ Sends Message Of Solidarity

She joined hands with a sheriff's deputy for this powerful moment.

At a time when our country seems increasingly divided, one woman’s expression of solidarity is spreading a hopeful message on social media.

Kim Muyaka of Baton Rouge, Louisiana posted a photo to Facebook last week, showing the moment she and a uniformed sheriff’s deputy joined hands in prayer. The image since been shared more than 24,000 times.

Muyaka told the Independent Journal Review last week that she felt compelled to pray with the officer in the photo.

“God dropped in my heart that I need to reach out to someone else to pray with, someone outside my race,” she said. That person ended up being the man in the powerful photo above.

As he grabbed my hands I could feel the fear inside him, and his hands were shaking ... After I finished praying, he was relieved.”

Though the photo was taken more than a week ago, it seems especially relevant after Sunday’s events in Baton Rouge, when three police officers were killed and another three injured while responding to a shooting.

“I’m heartbroken for our people,” Muyaka said in a live Facebook video following the shooting. “I’m heartbroken for this nation ... I’m upset because people do things out of hatred, out of anger.”

One of the officers killed in the shooting had penned an emotional Facebook post just two weeks before he died, with a message similar to Muyaka’s viral photo.

“Please don’t let hate infect your heart,” he wrote. “This city MUST and WILL get better. I’m working in these streets so any protestors, officers, friends, family, or whoever, if you see me and need a hug or want to say a prayer. I got you.”

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Multiple Officers Shot In Baton Rouge

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