'There Was Someone Watching Over That Child Today'

Police officers save baby dad allegedly tried to drown
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Dec 18, 2018 4:16 PM CST
'There Was Someone Watching Over That Child Today'
Stock photo   (Getty Images / Tatiana Morozova)

Two Missouri officers saved the life of a 6-month-old girl whose father walked into their police station and said he had just drowned his daughter, authorities say. Greenwood police Chief Greg Hallgrimson and Cpl. Tom Calhoun rushed to a pond where the man said he had drowned his daughter Monday and pulled her out, performed CPR and warmed her up until she started breathing, said Lt. Aaron Fordham, who called the baby's survival a "miracle." He said the father, 28-year-old Jonathon Stephen Zicarelli, showed no emotion when he stunned officers with his report that he had left his daughter in an icy pond on the west side of Greenwood, which is about 20 miles southeast of Kansas City. While Fordham stayed with Zicarelli, Hallgrimson and Calhoun ran to the pond, the AP reports.

They found the unconscious baby floating face up, lethargic and her skin a lifeless color, the Kansas City Star reported. She had mud in her eye and grass and water in her mouth, and her lungs were full of water. Officers estimate she had been in the pond more than 10 minutes. Calhoun waded into the thigh-deep water and rushed the girl to the bank. He cleared the water from her lungs and began CPR, and the infant began breathing within minutes, Fordham said. Calhoun and Hallgrimson removed the baby's wet clothes and wrapped her in the chief's shirt to warm her. She was stable and in good health at a nearby hospital as of Monday afternoon, where she was being treated for hypothermia. "There was absolutely someone watching over that child today," Fordham said. Prosecutors have charged Zicarelli, who allegedly said he was stressed by the holidays and trying to provide for his family and also said he wanted to make things easier for his wife, with first-degree domestic assault. (Another "miracle" recently made headlines.)

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