The newborn had stopped breathing, her mother said.
A South Carolina traffic cop pulled over a speeding car and ended up saving the life of a newborn girl.
Berkeley County Sheriff's Deputy William Kimbro was on routine patrol when a vehicle sped by him in the town of Summerville, authorities said. He gave chase, thinking he was making a routine traffic stop.
Instead, a woman in the passenger seat held up her 12-day-old daughter, who wasn't breathing.
Body cam footage shows the deputy taking the tiny child in his hands, then patting her stomach. He places her on her mother's lap and massages her chest. "C'mon, baby," he tells the infant. "C'mon baby, c'mon."
The mother explains that she had put her new child, named Riley, in her bassinet for a nap and went to take a shower while her stepmother checked on the infant.
One minute Riley was sleeping peacefully, the next she appeared to be choking and there was milk in her mouth.
"Please open those eyes, sweetheart," Kimbro can be heard saying as he rubs her face and belly and maneuvers his fingertip inside her mouth.
Kimbro spoke to Inside Edition about the harrowing traffic stop.
"The whole time I was thinking to myself, do not let this baby die in front of her mother and her grandmother. Just don't," he said.
Then suddenly, Riley begins to wail. "As long as she's crying, she's breathing," he tells girl's mother and step-grandmother, who was behind the wheel.
"I'm worried about her because she starts breathing, and then she stops and then starts and then stops," the deputy is heard telling the women. The baby's skin also had a slight bluish tint.
The officer stays until the paramedics arrive and explains to them what happened. The child's mother softy cries as Kimbro explains the baby had choked on milk, then had difficulty breathing and maintaining a steady pulse.
"She's going to be good," he tells the sobbing mom. "I can feel that heart. It's good now."
The baby is now just fine, and the family was not issued a ticket or citation. The sheriff's department posted the body cam video on its Facebook page, lauding Kimbro's grace under pressure.
"Because of deputy Kimbro's steadfast, professional and heroic response, the 12-day-old baby was able to live," the department said.
"I'm just glad little Riley is just flourishing," Kimbro added.
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