When a Florida sheriff pulled up at a local gas station to pump fuel into his squad car, one elderly Army veteran surprised the officer by standing guard and telling him, “I have your back.”

Lake County Sheriff’s Deputy David Causey stopped at a gas station in Eustis, Florida, and began to pump his gas, but then he noticed that a man was standing guard over him as he pumped the fuel.

When the sheriff asked what was going on, Casey DeLoach, a 73-year-old Army veteran, told the officer, “Thank you sir for what you do. I have your back.”

“I just kind of just stood there in shock, that an elderly man was willing to possibly put himself in danger to help me, a complete stranger,” officer Causey wrote on his Facebook posting about the incident.

The elderly citizen did not leave his name, simply walking away and driving off once the officer was done with his task. He was later identified by the photo Sheriff Causey took of the incident.

Officer Causey said DeLoach’s gesture was “amazing.”

The story comes on the tail of three more officers having been killed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Indeed, one of the slain officers himself had said that he was disheartened that not enough citizens had his back.

“I swear to God I love this city but I wonder if this city loves me,” officer Montrell Jackson wrote on a Facebook posting earlier this month.

Officer Jackson also said tensions between the police and the community left him “tired physically and emotionally” and had “tested” him “to the core.”

Jackson was one of three officers killed on duty in Baton Rouge during the weekend.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.