This traffic stop between a Black man and a White state trooper began with fear. It ended with a surprising act of...

CNN —

At first glance, it looks like another of those viral photos that we can barely watch anymore.

It shows a White state trooper and a Black man during a traffic stop on a bright, sunny day. The trooper is leaning his thick arms through the open passenger window to clutch the Black mans right hand. The mans back is pinned against the passenger seat, and his eyes are squeezed shut. He appears to be wincing in pain.

But this photo is being widely shared for another reason. The trooper is reaching into the car to help, not to harm. And the encounter has been described by those who witnessed it not as tragic, but inspired.

It was a really beautiful moment for me to see this take place between my dad and the officer, said Ashlye V. Wilkerson, the 39-year-old driver of the car who surreptitiously took the photo.

The state trooper still has trouble digesting what happened that afternoon.

Its just one of those things I cant explain, said Trooper Jaret Doty of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.

Doty thought he was stopping a stranger that day. It turned out he had traveled down the same road as the man whose hand he held.

A Daddys girl, caring for her ailing father

Their serendipitous meeting took place March 28, a Monday afternoon. Wilkerson was driving her 2016 silver Volvo south on Interstate 85 in Rowan County, North Carolina. She had picked up her father, Anthony Tony Geddis, who had just completed a round of chemotherapy treatments at Duke University Medical Center, and was driving him back to his home in Columbia, South Carolina.