Youngstown officers who drove baby to hospital say he never cried
...Two Youngstown police officers are being lauded for their quick thinking in trying to save a young life.
Two Youngstown police officers are being lauded for their quick thinking in trying to save a young life.
When the patrolmen were called to a shooting on Pasadena on the city's Southside, where a car was riddled with bullets, they didn't know there was an infant inside. But once they did, they immediately sprang into action to save his life.
Officers Casey Kelly and Greg Tackett tell 21 News when they saw the condition of three-and-a-half-month-old Tarique Morris, they just knew that every second mattered.
And even though in the end, the baby was taken off of life support and died, they knew they have given the innocent baby who had been shot every chance at life.
Initially, upon responding to the scene, the officers only saw the two adults in the front seat. Edward Morris, Jr. was already deceased with a gun between his legs, and his girlfriend, Valarcia Blair, was still holding on but in bad shape. But the officers were shocked by what they found in the back seat.
"It looked like a pile of clothes, to be honest. They had a blanket over top of the baby carrier. And as I was shining my light, I looked up and saw the baby's face and I was kind of like oh no," Officer Kelly said.
The officers say the baby also never made a sound even though he was looking around, and clearly critically injured by gunfire.
"Not a cry, not a whimper, not anything. It was kind of just laying there," Officer Kelly said.
Officer Tackett remembers being in the cruiser, holding the infant in the baby carrier, and Tarique looking up at him.
"I just remember he kept putting his little hand in my hand and I was just holding on to it. It was just very hard," Officer Tacket said.
The officers decided to take the baby in the police cruiser to the hospital knowing it could be four minutes before the ambulance was on-scene.
"Short of pushing my foot through the floorboard to get the pedal to get as fast as I could get going, that's what I was doing. I was jamming it and he was telling me, 'Come on, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go," Officer Kelly said.
Officer Kelly says they may have reached speeds of up to 120 miles per hour running lights.
St. Elizabeth Mercy Police had lights and sirens on and were actually moving cars over for them as nurses and doctors waited to grab the baby at the trauma center.
Officer Tackett said, "It was very hard to see that child in that condition."
Both officers said they are not heroes. They are just committed to public service and they would do it in or out of uniform because they're human and no one wants to see a child suffer.
