'Catch Him!' Deputies Deliver Baby Boy at Downtown Courthouse

UPDATED AT 9 PM.: Sheriff’s deputies helped deliver a baby boy in a hallway at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles today.

Ambermarie Irving Elkins stopped Deputy Sally Styles on the first floor of the courthouse at 111 N. Hill St. about 11:30 a.m. and said she was having acute contractions and was two days past her due date.

Styles called the fire department, but before firefighters arrived, deputies Daniel Aleman, Mark Desmarteau, Marquette Oliver and Michelle Reyes delivered the baby about 11:40 a.m.

Firefighters took the mother and baby to a hospital to be checked out.

The Sheriff’s Special Enforcement Bureau tweeted a photo of the smiling mother and newborn, apparently still on a courthouse floor, along with a message saying both are fine.

Elkins later told CBS2 her contractions were 15 minutes apart, but she thought she had time to go to the courthouse and make a payment. Her son had other ideas.

“I put my hands down there and the baby’s head comes out and then the rest of his body just slid into my hands,” Oliver said.

Reyes said she gathered some paper towels to assist her colleague.

“I was like, ‘Oliver, catch him,”’ she said.

• City News Service
• Photo Credit: LASD’s Special Enforcement Bureau on Twitter