Baby Born at Bus Stop With Help From 2 Police Officers

RESEDA — Two police officers helped deliver a baby at a bus stop Thursday afternoon, despite birth complications.

Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics took the mother, Blanca Hernandez, and her 7-pound, 3-ounce baby girl to Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center shortly after the 4:40 p.m. birth. Both were doing fine, said Los Angeles Police Sgt. John Mallory.

Officers John Cheun, 28, and Chris Mezich, 26, were at an unrelated call when a man directed them to the northeast corner of Reseda and Victory boulevards. Hernandez was waiting at the bus stop there for a ride to the hospital when she went into labor. She was due next week.

They found Hernandez sitting under a tree behind the bus stop. Cheun, a two-year veteran of the LAPD, said the baby was emerging feet first.

“It seemed like forever,” before paramedics arrived, he said. “I told [the mother] to be patient, to breathe and relax.”

The newborn was not breathing at first, but paramedics cleared the baby’s nose and mouth and the infant began to cry, Mezich said.

“We were all standing around pulling for the little girl,” Mezich said. “She started crying and made us feel a lot better.”

Mezich, who has been with the LAPD only a year, said he had training in the Police Academy in how to deliver babies.

“I never thought I’d use it,” he said.