ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. — It’s not the 911 call St. Louis Park police officer Maddie Turnquist was expecting to receive during a midnight shift a few weeks ago; assisting with a birth wasn’t part of the job description when she took an oath to protect and serve her community.
“We weren’t taught how to deliver babies, no,” she joked.
But she answered the call, and a doctor came to see her through the birth. While Turnquist and other officers were on the scene, baby Theo made his big debut in the backseat of his parents’ car.
“I focused on that and the mother and then made sure the baby cried [he] came out and made sure that [he] “He was breathing,” Turnquist told WCCO.
His grandfather, John Tragiai, said Theo and his mother, Katelyn, are healthy and doing well. He later called the St. Louis Park police chief to express his gratitude for their help, but also to say that his family understands the important work they do.
Tragiai himself was an officer with the St. Cloud Police Department. But the ties with law enforcement don’t end there. He came into his daughter Katelyn’s life after his wife and Katelyn’s mother, Wendy, lost her then-husband St. Joseph Police Officer Brian Kleinfelter in the line of duty.
He was shot dead in 1996 while trying to stop a liquor store robbery. Katelyn, Tragiai said, was only a few months old. He later adopted her when she was four years old.
“[Kleinfelter’s] The hand was on that delivery and I just felt compelled to share that part of the story with the chef,” Tragiai said.
Their personal story makes them especially grateful to Turnquist and her colleagues who answered the call that evening.
“Law enforcement plays such an important role in our lives. And let’s not forget who they are and what they do,” he told WCCO. “When tragedy strikes, when you’re in the middle of it, it’s hard to see outside of it. Just knowing that something good comes out of the tragedy – the Kleinfelter family, our family, Katelyn – we are all blessed in so many different ways. We would never have seen that in 1996.”
“So maybe it just gives people a little bit of hope,” he said.
Turnquist explained that it was refreshing to hear from the family that she had had an impact on them, but that it was just part of the job.
“If you call, we will come over,” she said.
Caroline Cummings
