About 70 law enforcement officers welcomed the five-year-old son of a slain police officer to a western Indiana school as he returned to class for the first time since his father was killed in a shootout.

Dakota Pitts asked his mother if one of his father’s friends could drive him for his first day back.

WTHI-TV reports Dakota got that special ride and when he arrived Monday morning at Sullivan Elementary School he was greeted by about 70 Terre Haute police officers and Vigo County Sheriff’s deputies lining the school’s entrance.

He was presented with a SWAT team shirt and badge during his arrival.

Dakota’s dad, Terre Haute police Officer Rob Pitts, was killed May 4.

Kelli Jones, Rob Pitts’ sister, says Dakota knows “his dad was a hero.”

(AP)