DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — A chance stop to pick up supplies for a new family pet led to a Chipley police officer and his wife saving the life of an infant.
Officer Tyler Brannon and his wife, Amanda, had just returned from picking up a puppy and stopped at the Tractor Supply store in DeFuniak Springs around 2:30 p.m. Saturday to purchase dog food and a collar. The couple was making their way toward the store entrance when they heard an alarming noise.
“We immediately looked at each other when we heard the sound,” Officer Brannon said. “At first, it sort of sounded like a screaming cat, and I thought, ‘I hope that’s not a baby,’ because I couldn’t hearing any vehicles running. We began looking in vehicles, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from.”
Soon, Amanda Brannon made an unsettling discovery.
“My wife looked in a van and immediately started crying,” Officer Brannon said.
Inside the van, which had the windows rolled up, the Brannons found a baby girl strapped into her seat.
“Luckily, the door was unlocked; otherwise, I would have busted a window,” he said. “She was soaked as though I had pulled her out of a swimming pool and was showing signs of dehydration.”
The couple called 911, and emergency responders arrived, who quickly discovered a baby sitter had left the child in a van for about 10 to 15 minutes.
“Even after EMS and law enforcement got here, the baby sitter still hadn’t walked out of the store,” Officer Brannon said. “Another 10 minutes in that van, and it could have been fatal.”
With temperatures in the 90s and the heat index hovering around 106, the National Weather Service had issued a heat advisory earlier Saturday.
The infant, who police said was about 10 months old, was transported to an area hospital for evaluation but later released to her mother, according to DeFuniak Springs Police. No charges were filed against the baby sitter because police determined she and a friend accidentally left the baby behind when they went shopping, DeFuniak Police reported.
The Brannons, who have a 7-month-old daughter, say they simply can’t understand how such conditions can be ignored.
“I was really just angry,” Officer Brannon said. “I don’t understand how anyone can forget a child. I’m just glad we found her.”
The Brannons said they are naming their new puppy in the baby’s honor.
Northwest Florida Daily News Writer Tom McLaughlin contributed to this report.