OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — A photo of an Overland Park police officer feeding the baby of a mother who had just suffered a seizure has gone viral.
Officer Andy Black, has worked off-duty at the Oak Park Mall for 25 years, assisted on the medical emergency call.
“By the time I got there, the lady had recovered somewhat, and was sitting on a seat with a small baby in a carrier at her feet,” Black told FOX2. Her husband was talking with paramedics on the scene, and Black said the woman seemed disoriented. She was shaking badly and he was afraid she might drop the baby, so he asked to hold it.
PLEASE SHARE !!!!!I just had to stop, chat and ask if I may take his photo....Paramedics were helping this little...
Posted by Jilli Nel on Sunday, May 31, 2015
“She had the baby and was putting the bottle in her mouth, and when she gave her to me, she handed me the bottle,” Black said. “The baby started crying. I’m a grandpa. I took the bottle, and I fed the baby.”
Photographer Jilli Nel witnessed the scene, and was moved by that moment.
“I looked and the next thing I saw Officer Black,” Nel said. “And there he was, holding this little tiny bundle of joy, just feeding her, the two of them in their own little world.”
She asked if she could capture it.
“It was so beautiful,” she said. “It just touched my heart so much that I had to stop and just talk to him, and ask him if I could take his picture,” Nel said.
After sharing the photo on social media, both she and Black have received many messages about it.
“Some people have turned it into, you know, this is a set up photo,” Nel said. “It wasn’t. It was just a pure moment that I had to capture.”
FOX reached out to the parents of the baby, but didn’t receive a response. Black says they thanked him for his kindness.