THE BRONX, New York (WABC) — A mother and her newborn were reunited Thursday, with the heroic NYPD officers who helped deliver her baby when she went into labor outside her building in the Bronx, and had no one else to turn to.
Kashanna Legette looks at her newborn like it’s the only thing that matters. One-month-old Zanovia is her whole world, and the newborn was in a hurry to be brought into it.
“I was like, I have to go downstairs,” Legette said. “I have to go downstairs to try to get to the hospital. Then I didn’t make it to the hospital.”
Legette barely made it to a piece of discarded furniture outside her building to lie down as she went into labor on February 13.
It was all a blur, but she does remember seeing a lot of blue, and it wasn’t nurses in their scrubs.
“We did see a video in the academy but we were told that it’s rare,” Officer Keanu Phillip said.
Rare was the job officers with the NYPD’s 42nd Precinct would be tasked with. They’re now honorary godparents if you will.
“I asked to see how far apart mom’s contractions were – and that’s when – and that’s when I knew the baby was coming,” said NYPD Officer Katerin Villar.
“I had one officer holding my hand. I had officers telling me to breathe,” Legette said.
She had a chance to thank each officer who helped deliver her baby, including Officer Keanu Phillip, a soon-to-be father himself.
“I put myself in the position of, what if that was my wife? Or that’s going to be my wife eventually. What would I do? Automatically assume position, hold her head, stroke her head, say it’s going to be OK, breathe through your mouth,” Phillip said.
But it was what Officer Roddmy Remy did, taking his jacket off to swaddle the baby, that inspired Legette to make her baby’s middle name, the officer’s name.
“Because he didn’t have to do none of that. So for him to do that it was beautiful,” Legette said.
“When I went back to the hospital to pick up my jacket and the mom told me the name, I was in shock, and the first thing I did, I was like, can I take a picture with you because this was probably the coolest thing that’s going to happen in my career,” Remy said.
More important than the badge and uniform in that moment was that Legette was dealing with a bunch of compassionate humans who were flagged down as they were assigned to a post to deter violent crime. They were there before any other first responder, and in arms reach of a mother who needed them to bring life into the world.
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