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WEST VALLEY CITY — A woman says she can't believe how fast police got to her West Valley City home this week when her baby suddenly stopped breathing.
From the time she dialed 911 to the time an officer held her screaming baby in his arms Tuesday was less than four minutes, she said.
"I need help! My daughter is not breathing," Mickenzey Bennion told a 911 dispatcher.
For a few frantic minutes, Bennion didn't know what to do.
"It was the scariest, scariest thing that I've ever had to deal with," she said.
She knew something was very wrong with her 9-month-old daughter, Billy.
"When I picked her up, she went stiff as a board," Bennion said.
Her call to 911 triggered a dispatch call to all police, which was heard by an officer heading back to the station.
"A call came over dispatch of a choking that was very close," said detective Tyler Longman.
When he arrived at the address, he knew it wouldn't be as easy as just running up to the door.
"There was a gate across the driveway and there were two dogs barking at the gate," he explained. "As I was unlatching it, a third German shepherd came up. So I had three German shepherds at the gate."
Longman knew he didn't have time to wait.
"I didn't know how they would receive me, but I had to get in," he said.
"Before I could even get to the door, he opened the door and grabbed her out of my hands," Bennion said.
The child was purple and limp, Longman said. Then he patted her on the back a couple of times, Bennion said.
"I was doing it a whole bunch of times, but it just wasn't quite the right way. It was just crazy how just two little things that I was doing wrong, he did right, and now she's happy," Bennion said.
Longman is a hero to Billy and her mom. Longman said he's just a police officer who did what he would have done if Billy were his own daughter.
"When I was holding that little baby, for that moment, she was mine. And to hear her cry and come back, that was a great relief," he said.
Doctors later said Billy had a fever that spiked so quickly, it actually caused her to have a seizure. She is doing better now.
