A 10-year-old Black boy was filmed hiding behind a car in his driveway from the police 'because they killed George Floyd'

• A 10-year-old from Connecticut was dribbling a basketball and shooting hoops in his driveway when a police cruiser drove by.
• Surveillance footage shows the boy, Eliah Pierre-Louis, hiding behind a car until the car passed his home.
• His reaction "floored" his father, Stacey Pierre-Louis, who shared the video on Instagram.
• "Why does he feel like he has to hide when he isn't doing anything wrong?" he wondered.
• The video is trending on social media and snagged the attention of NBA superstar LeBron James, who shared it on Twitter with the caption, "Breaks my Heart!!"

A video that has been widely circulated on social media shows the reaction of a young boy in Trumbull, Connecticut, when he spots a police cruiser.

In the clip, the child quickly hides behind a white Jeep until the squad car passes and then resumes shooting hoops.

The boy has been identified as Eliah Pierre-Louis, 10. His father, Stacey Pierre-Louis, shared the surveillance footage on Instagram. The elder Pierre-Louis was at work — he is a client advisor at a BMW dealership — when he saw his son's reaction in a security camera feed.

"It floored me," he wrote, admitting that he spent a few days wrestling with the decision to share the video.

"I'll save the dramatics, but growing up black or brown most of the time means fearing the police vs. looking up to them," he wrote. "I live in an affluent neighborhood in Trumbull with a really good school system. This kid has all the opportunity to do/be whatever he wants, unlike many kids who look like him because resources aren't made available."

So, Pierre-Louis wondered, "Why does he feel like he has to hide when he isn't doing anything wrong?"

Upon returning home from work that day, he posed that question to Eliah, who responded, "because they killed George Floyd."

Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man died on Memorial Day, after a Minneapolis police officer kept a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes. The police killing sparked global protests with people demanding justice, and an end to police violence and systemic racism.

Pierre-Louis also shared his concern about where Eliah picked up the knowledge that police encounters may end badly for him as a black person.

"He didn't learn this behavior at home," he wrote. "We stream movies so he doesn't see the news and we don't talk negatively about police."

Pierre-Louis' Instagram post has been viewed over 78,000 times and even popped up on NBA star LeBron James' radar. He shared it on Twitter and wrote, "Breaks my Heart!!"

—LeBron James (@KingJames) June 16, 2020

The video spurred a lot of positive attention and support, he said, "which leads me to believe that there is far more good in this world than there is bad. So it is our hope that this video can be used as a tool to help continue to bring us together in this fight and inspire change for the better."

Pierre-Louis acknowledged to CBS News that his immediate reaction to watching Eliah hiding was a feeling of "helplessness," which was followed by the realization that "this is the reality for millions of Black and minority children across this nation and the world."

"My priority as a parent and family man is to protect my son and children from the atrocities and injustices of the world and provide them with the tools to be whole, productive, and fearless contributing members of the world. Unfortunately, in the state of times and for reasons we all see daily, it makes it difficult," he said.

"But as many parents are doing, I can only continue to educate and prepare my son with the truth and arm him with the tools to continue to create change. It's my hope that when he becomes a man, he'll then be able to do the same for his family," Pierre-Louis added.

Expanded Coverage Module: black-lives-matter-module