HOUSTON — Just call him Deputy Martinez.
8-year old Michael Martinez was made an honorary deputy Friday by several Houston-area law enforcement agencies.
They gave the shy boy a bunch of badges and showered him with gifts during a special ceremony.
“It’s overwhelming, all the love and support that we’re getting from all the officers," his mom, Angie Martinez, said.
The agencies teamed up to honor the little boy after hearing how he was bullied at school for dressing as a police officer on career day. A couple of older students pushed him out of his wheelchair in the hallway.
"Michael kept his cool and stayed calm as several students helped him back into his chair," Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said.
The third grader uses the wheelchair because he has cerebral palsy.
But it didn't stop him from standing up to the bullies. He proudly wore his police costume to school again the next day, but this time he was escorted in a deputy constable's car.
Ogg praised Michael's courage in the face of adversity.
“Honorary badges are given to recipients who embody the characteristics required of every peace officer and first responder: courage, strength, kindness, and resilience,” Ogg said.
This wasn't the first time Michael has made the news. We first told you about him last year when he saved his entire family during the bitter freeze.
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After everyone went to bed, Michael heard the carbon monoxide detector going off. He crawled to his parents' room to wake them.
The odorless, poisonous carbon monoxide coming from their stove could have killed them all.
“Michael saved eight family members during the freeze. We’re very, very blessed to have Michael in our lives," his grandmother said Friday.
Life hasn't been easy for the Atascocita boy who was born much earlier than expected and weighed only three pounds.
“Whenever I take him to school, the kids stare at him. He wants to play, and he wants to run like the other kids. We have our moments where we … Michael and I, just cry and just hold each other,” Angie Martinez told us last year.
Even heroes have tough days.
But Michael can now hold his head high, knowing that he has a lot of friends in high places looking out for him and cheering him on.