MARYVILLE, Tenn. — It was during baseball tryouts for Kamron Moats -- he was 11 years old at the time -- when a close family friend picked him up and told him his father was fatally shot in the line of duty.
Officer Kenny Moats from Maryville died after he responded to a domestic violence call in 2016.
Now, about eight years later, his 18-year-old son graduates from the Blount County Training Academy to be a police officer.
"There's a lot of people who said I wouldn't be able to do it because I'm at a young age and I'm more of one of those to prove people wrong," Kamron said. "After that, my main focus was just to take care of my brother and sister."
When he was young, Kamron said he remembered his father as a fun-loving person.
"He was not selfish at all," he said. "He put everybody before him. He loved the community, he wanted to help all the kids, he was mainly just a family man, community guy."
Maryville Police Chief Tony Crisp hired Kenny and now, his son, Kamron.
A wall filled with memorabilia of Kenny sits inside the Maryville Police Department. His helmet, jacket, badge and more honor the late officer.
"I know without doubt, he's very proud of his eldest son at this very moment," Crisp said. "We shall never forget the sacrifice that he made, nor shall we forget the sacrifices the family made. And so we're excited to have Officer Kamron Moats part of the Maryville Police Department, and we look forward to him following in his father's footsteps."
Kamron is now training out on the field. He said he goes out on patrol to train in real situations.
While he knows he's taking a similar risk as his father once did, he said it's for a purpose and he believes there's a guardian angel watching over him.
What he hopes is to help the people around him as much as he can and to make it through this next training process.
"Just to get through it, that's really the main thing and help my community be better," Kamron said. "Just knowing that he's looking and he's watching, just knowing that he's there for anything, it helps me a lot."