WASHINGTON — A call for help on Thursday night was a first for a 12-year police veteran — and it’s one he’ll never forget.
Montgomery County Police Officer Dave Reed was on patrol at the White Oak Shopping Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, when a man told him he’d seen a woman who was in some kind of distress in a parked car.
Officer Reed spotted the woman sitting hunched over in the passenger side of a car, sobbing uncontrollably. The door was open when he approached her to ask if she needed help or if he should call for an ambulance.
Reed says the woman shifted her body, blocking something in her lap from his view.
“At that point I put my hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her and let her know that I was there to help her,” Reed says.
When the woman shifted slightly, Reed could see that she had a baby wrapped in a heavy fleece blanket. The baby appeared lifeless, Reed says. “The baby’s head rolled back, the eyes kind of rolled back in the baby’s head.” The child was unresponsive and unconscious.
At that point, Reed told the woman he was going to take the baby from her arms. The woman allowed him to take the child, even though she was sobbing so hard, Reed says he was worried she was going to hyperventilate.
With such a tiny baby — Reed guessed it was about one month old — he used a two-fingered technique to start chest compressions. Then he used the heel of his hand on the baby’s back and gave her a gentle rap.
“Not hard, just enough to jolt the baby,” he says.
That’s when he heard a gasp that let him know the baby was breathing. Then, the baby started to cry.
“I knew we were good — when you can hear a baby cry, then you know you’re good,” Reed says.
According to the Montgomery County Police Department, the father of the infant returned to the car during vehicle during the interaction.
The woman, who was later identified as the child’s mother, and the infant were taken to the hospital where the 21-year-old received a medical evaluation while the baby was given a physical exam.
At the hospital, Reed says it hit him: He saved the baby. “She looked at me with those big brown eyes and grabbed my finger. I was ready to take her home right then,” he says about the baby.
Reed says when he went home that day, he did what he always does: He spent time with his own two children. “Every night when I go home, I always go in and kiss them and tell them, ‘Daddy’s home safe.’ Last night, I … kind of stayed a little longer.”
At a news conference in front of police headquarters, Montgomery County Police Captain Paul Starks told reporters, “He didn’t say it, but Dave Reed is a hero.”
In response, Reed did what heroes typically do: he credited someone else. Reed says the man who first spotted the woman and then alerted him, helped put Reed in the right place at the right time.
“I tried to turn around when it was all said and done to thank him, but he was already gone.”
Montgomery County Police say the infant is expected to make a full recovery; the baby was released from the hospital to family members.
Police, Child Protective Services and the state’s Attorney’s office are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident.
WTOP’s Kate Ryan contributed to this report.
