When the Call of Duty Means ‘Be a Dad’

Our nation’s law enforcement personnel go above and beyond the call of duty every single day. The latest example is a heart-tugger. When a police officer rescued a baby in bad shape after a DUI stop in West Virginia last week, he found himself shifting into dad mode.

Derek Graham, a senior state trooper in West Virginia, pulled over a female driver who was “highly intoxicated,” as he told The Washington Post in an interview. The incident occurred about a mile from the Princeton, West Virginia, detachment headquarters.

“He was just clinging to me for dear life.”

In the back seat of the car was a baby boy. The child wore only a diaper, said Graham, and was covered in vomit.

“He had vomit all over him, just covered from head to toe,” Graham said. “You could smell feces, urine. It was probably the most disgusting thing I’ve seen thus far in my law enforcement career involving a child, especially an infant.”

The woman — the child’s mother — was placed under arrest, and the messy little bundle was trundled off to the state police barracks.

The baby was upset and crying, Graham said.

“I’m a father myself and I couldn’t sit there and let him … I couldn’t let him sit in that,” he told The Post.

Graham also said the baby had a “horrible croupy cough,” and was in “bad shape.”

So Graham and gave the child a warm bubble bath.

“He was crying, just so upset,” said Officer Graham. “And as soon as I got him there, and got some bubbles in there with him, we both locked eyes and it was — he started smiling, I started smiling. It was almost like he knew — he felt so much better. And he was just a completely different baby after that.”

The baby boy quickly bonded with his new friend in uniform. “He just laid on my chest,” Graham said. “We don’t have pack-and-plays or cribs or anything. So he was my sidekick for the rest of the evening.”

“He was the best little baby,” Trooper B.R. Wood, also on the scene for the event, told the Bluefield Daily Telegraph of Bluefield, West Virginia. “He had just started to nod off when CPS [Child Protective Services] arrived.”

Related: Bringing Police and People Together for Good

Colleen Sheehey-Church, national president of MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), had tough words for the mother of this child. Sheehey-Church told LifeZette, “Child endangerment is not only unconscionable, it’s a crime and a form of child abuse. Children don’t have a voice or a choice when riding with an adult, and should never be in danger from drunk driving, especially by those entrusted to keep them safe. Additional sanctions should be placed on anyone who drives under the influence of alcohol or drugs with a child in the vehicle — regular sanctions and treatment are not enough.”

In 2013, a total of 1,149 children 14 and younger were killed in car crashes, according to MADD. Of those 1,149 fatalities, 200 (17 percent) occurred in alcohol-impaired driving crashes.

One New York City police officer was moved by the efforts of his fellow law enforcer.

The baby is today in the care of a relative, according to Graham, while the driver is facing criminal charges.

“Moving forward, I hope for the best for this little boy,” said Sergeant Paul Grattan. “I know from my own personal experiences in the field that we don’t often get the luxury of seeing the results of our interventions. If nothing else, this child is better off [for] having met Trooper Graham.”

The troopers reportedly rustled up a teddy bear for the child. “He was just clinging to me for dear life,” Graham said. “It was actually really special.”

The baby is today in the care of a relative, according to Graham, while the driver is facing criminal charges. The woman was reportedly so intoxicated she couldn’t tell the troopers her child’s name.

“It’s really sad,” Graham told The Post.

The West Virginia trooper wears a badge — but has the heart of a father. “It was almost [as if] my ‘dad instinct’ popped into play,” Graham said. “Forget state trooper, forget law enforcement officer. It was Dad that took over, and said, ‘I gotta clean this little guy up.'”