Police Officer Saved A Toddler's Life After Pulling Over His Parents For Speeding On The Way To The Hospital
He used the training he received to save someone's life, protecting and serving his community.
chalabalaphotos, Mihajlo Maricic / Canva; Officer Fraser / WXYZ-TV Detroit Channel 7 A video was recently posted on X (the social media site formerly known as Twitter) where nearly 26 million people witnessed a police officer pulling over a car that was going 75 mph.
The video footage came from the police cruiser’s dashcam, and viewers can see that the passengers inside the car are frantically trying to get the officer’s attention.
What became a routine traffic stop became a life or death situation — but it didn’t end in the way you might think.
The police officer saved a toddler's life after pulling his parents over for speeding.
According to the press release from the Warren Police Department, via ABC 7, Officer Brenden Fraser was patrolling Warren, Michigan on August 29, 2023, when he noticed a Chevy Camaro speeding at about 75 mph.
As the car was well above the speed limit, it was Fraser’s duty to pull them over in an attempt to issue a speeding ticket, but it quickly turned into a life-or-death situation as the parents inside the car tried to tell him that their 18-month-old baby wasn’t breathing, choking on something blocking his airways.
The parents were speeding on their way to the hospital, but as the baby’s face was blue and he wasn’t breathing, the officer took it upon himself to use his training to try and save the boy’s life. “At this point, it wasn’t about writing a ticket, and you know, stopping a speeding driver,” Fraser told ABC 7’s Sarah Michals, “it’s like, ‘there’s an actual emergency here.’”
In the video, Fraser can be seen attempting to resuscitate the toddler as more police cruisers appear on the scene. Signs of life began to appear as the toddler started to draw breaths once again. Officer Fraser had saved the boy’s life.
“Watching it now it’s... It’s kind of overwhelming watching it, but in the moment, there’s really not much thought other than just relying on the training that we received,” he said. An ambulance appeared on the scene shortly after and the boy made a full recovery.
Officer Fraser was dubbed a hero for his efforts and was nominated for an award at the police department. The Warren Police Commissioner William Dwyer praised him as well, saying, “Officer Fraser’s actions on this traffic stop are nothing short of heroic. This incident shows that police work and traffic stops are not always about writing tickets or making arrests.”
Dwyer is right and indirectly touches on a subject that’s been somewhat sensitive in recent years: what are police officers' benefit to the community?
Fraser should be a shining example of how police officers should perform their job.
According to Career Explorer, “A police officer is responsible for maintaining public safety, enforcing laws, and protecting the community.” Needless to say, the public’s faith in police officers performing their jobs correctly has dwindled over the years.
According to a Post-ABC News poll published in February 2023, Americans are less confident in the police than ever before. Only 39% of those surveyed are confident police are properly trained to use excessive force.
A Gallup poll from 2022 found that only 45% of surveyed American adults are confident in the police force as a whole — 3 points lower than the previous year, and nowhere close to good enough.
These kinds of things should be the norm for police officers, and although it’s not every day that the opportunity to save a life presents itself, there’s a level of compassion and humanity that seems to be missing and ultimately results in the loss of life.
Officer Fraser should be praised and rewarded for saving a child’s life, and he should be labeled as a hero. He performed his duty as a police officer by ensuring the child’s safety.
He used the training he received to save someone’s life, and that’s what being a police officer should be about — saving a life, not ending one.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor for YourTango who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics.