Sad and angry

I heard about this story on the late news last night. And it left me very conflicted. A family (the husband just happens to be a NFL player) was on their way to a hospital to see their dying mother and ran a red light. A cop caught this and pulled them over in the hospital parking lot. The cop was very adamant about going through 'procedure' (the wife/daughter of the dying mother eventually ran in to the hospital w/o listening to the cop, leaving the husband outside to deal with the situation). The hospital even sent out a few nurses to try to talk the cop into letting the husband go in to the hospital. In the end, the cop issued the husband (and driver of the vehicle) a ticket for running a red light. And he did not get to say his goodbyes to his mother-in-law.

On one hand, there is a cop trying to do his job (albeit, without any compassion)--what if the driver had hit someone while running that red light? (Even though it appears he did slow down through the intersection and he did have his emergency lights on)

On the other hand, I understand the family trying to race to the hospital to spend those last few, precious moments with their loved one. And I can say that because I have been there, and no one (gun or no gun, badge or no badge) would have stopped me from trying to get there in time.

The City's Police Department has issued an apology to the family, canceled the ticket, and the cop has been placed on leave, pending an investigation.

This is one of those hard stories. What would you have done?