Officer went above his call of duty to save a missing 2-year-old shivering with cold

The officer was helping with traffic control when a volunteer approached him along with her search dog.

PUBLISHED 9 HOURS AGO

(L) The officer giving an interview. (R) A child shivering while being wrapped in a towel. Representative Cover Image Source: YouTube | KOIN 6; Getty Images | timltv

Emergency workers and first responders often put their own lives on the line to save people. An officer did just that and went beyond his duty to save a missing child while he was helping with traffic control. A woman and her search dog had found the missing boy and they went to the officer for help. They had thought that the 2-year-old was not breathing at first, but were surprised when they went in closer and the officer, Daniel Tatro, held onto him, per KOIN 6.

A little kid lost in a forest. Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Mikkel William

The search dog, Ava, had found the missing toddler face down in a blackberry bush near a market and they weren't sure if the boy was alive. They told the officer about it and Tatro accompanied them to come and get the boy. But the boy was actually breathing. "As I lifted him up, he clung to me. You could tell he was very weak and very cold to the touch," Tatro recounted. The officer tried his best to keep the boy warm and held him close while wrapping him up in his jacket. Officers are usually supposed to keep some distance between themselves and the rescued people, but the man understood that the boy really needed him at that moment and held him close.

An officer holding a baby. Representative Image Source: Getty Images | RG Studio

"He was really cute, so it was hard not to love him," Tatro remarked. "You think of your own kids in a time like that and what he must have gone through to end up stuck in those blackberry bushes." The boy's mother had reported that the kid had gone missing from her bed at around 6 AM on a Saturday. The boy was found 6 hours later, but the police felt that he might have been out for around 11 hours when he was rescued. The volunteer, Becky Irving, her search dog, Ava and the officer helped save the boy in that unexpected situation. "My wife called me and told me that this is the top of my career," Tatro shared. "It's not going to get any better than this."

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The child was taken to the hospital after that and was put into protective custody with DHS. The boy was supposed to remain there for a while and his mom had agreed to undergo residential treatment. There was no evidence of any foul play. People appreciated the rescue work put in by the officer, the volunteer and the search dog in the comments section of the video. @Lyricidal06 commented, "The way that little baby's head bobbed with such weakness and exhaustion when he was picked up just broke me...Thank God he was found and thank you to that wonderful woman taking her dog to search for him." @DolcefarnienteABC123 remarked, "I'm not a dad, but a helpless little guy clinging to me for dear life would make me feel like the greatest hero of all time."

@deltaboy767 shared, "I was adopted by a really young police officer when I was 2 years old. He was 21 and had been on the force for a week. My dad beat my mother to death and I remember running to the lady across the street crying, so she called the police and Officer McNamara showed up and got in a fight with the monster. Luckily, he managed to arrest him before other cops came. Long story short, after they took my dad to jail, I was placed in a foster care for 2 weeks, when officer McNamara came to visit and check up on me, he decided he wanted to adopt me and so he did. He is the best dad I've ever had and I love him very much; he's my hero. I love you, Dad."