A Louisville Metro police officer became isolated from his unit during a protest as it turned much more tense last week.

He soon became the focus of anger from a group of protesters.

That’s when Darren Lee Jr. and other men who were taking part in the protest Thursday night stepped in.

The crowd was moving in on the officer. Lee said the officer appeared nervous, so he joined another man who was blocking the officer from the crowd,  WAVE reported .

Chris Williams was also there. “At first, they were pulling him to response and the officer was outnumbered really bad,"  Williams told WHAS . "We were like, scoot back bro, and the people were matching with their kind of linked arms all the way around him.”

“Why are you guys protecting him?” Lee said the angry crowd yelled. The jeers and the screams from the rioters eventually died down, but the tension remained. The men were then able to usher the officer to his unit.

“He said, ‘Thank you,’” Lee said of the officer. “I think he learned at that point that not all protesters or not all black people are bad people. We don’t all have hate for the police. We just want to see change. We just want to see justice.”