4-year-old named Detroit Police Chief of the Day
(CBS DETROIT) - There's a new chief in town.
It's always been four-year-old Aniel Mendez's dream to be a police officer.
Thursday that dream came true.
"Very happy to see him enjoy this," said his mother, Abby Mendez.
After taking a tumble while playing, Aniel's parents took him to the hospital.
But the news they received was a blow to the family.
Aniel was diagnosed with stage four brain cancer.
"They saw one pupil was bigger than the other, and they were like, Oh my God," said his father, Jorge Mendez.
"It was like Power Rangers. All doctors came out everywhere and took him for emergency brain surgery."
Detroit Police got a tip from a neighborhood officer about Aniel's condition.
The department came together in less than 24 hours to honor the brave boy by naming him Chief of the Day.
"It's just a wonderful thing to see this little boy who's going to have a lot of medical treatment coming his way this week that he can have today as our special Chief of Police for the city of Detroit," said Detroit Public Safety Foundation Executive Director Patti Kukula.
And the Detroit Fire Department joined in on the fun.
"He likes it because he's got fire trucks at home," Jorge said.
"He's got police cars at home and he's always walking around, Dada come on! I'm going to arrest you Dada! I'm like, oh yeah! And I try to run from him and he catches me and I trip over the house and he catches me. I got you Dada! So it's what he likes to do. Before all this happened it's what he wanted to do when he got older."
Aniel is set to undergo chemotherapy Friday.
