When Officer Nick Struck showed up at the scene of a car accident in Brighton, Colorado, on June 18, he saw four young children ejected from a car.

The children’s father, Carlos Torres, died at the scene, and their mother, Stephanie Greer, was injured.

“The car rolled over numerous times. No one was wearing a seatbelt, so there were kids everywhere,” Officer Struck tells PEOPLE. “They ranged in age from 3 months to 4 years old.

While the severely injured crash victims were cared for, Struck noticed that one of the children, a 2-year-old girl, was crying in the field. She instantly reminded him of his daughter, who is the same age.

“I picked her up and sang her ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,’ ” he says. “It calmed her down. She was soaked in gasoline. It was bad, but she wasn’t injured.”

He also pointed to the lights of the ambulance, which seemed to distract and amuse her.

A photo of Struck holding the young child has been shared more than 3 million times.

Want to know more? Got the drop at People . . .