Kaufman Co. Deputy Who Pulled Baby From Hot Car Shares Story
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KAUFMAN (CBSDFW.COM) - Even when he's not on-duty, Kaufman County Sheriff's Deputy Matthew Slater admits, he's always on alert. "I just do whatever I can to help whoever I can," says Deputy Slater.
So it's no surprise then, that while shopping at The Nebraska Furniture Mart earlier this month, Deputy Slater drew near when he noticed a crowd gathering around a locked car. Then he heard the word 'baby'.
"I get my knife out and started hammering the window, after about 25 strikes, it shatters." The store's surveillance cameras were rolling as a crying, 7 month old baby boy was discovered inside. "When I got to the car, he was pretty sweaty, not real, real wet," recalls Deputy Slater, "but, you can tell that he'd been sweating and had been in there for a while."
The deputy didn't wait for accolades— he handed over the baby and quietly left the scene.
Police in The Colony alerted his Kaufman County colleagues. Still, Deputy Slater insists that the real hero in the parking lot that day was an alert young girl—probably 10 years old.
"She heard it, told her parents and that's when the commotion started around the vehicle. She deserved all the credit… it's all her, really."
The baby's parents later came rushing to the car and told police that they were distracted because they were moving that day. The father, Matthew Long, was arrested the scene and a warrant has now also been issued for the baby's mother, Stephanie. They are both charged with abandoning and endangering a child.
Stephanie Long released a statement to CBS 11 calling the incident a "tragic mistake" and thanking the deputy for his actions.
"I don't think it should be me at all, because somebody else would have done it… all I did was break a window."
Nevertheless, the deputy will be honored in the coming weeks with a Life Saving award from his Sheriff's Department colleagues.
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