A Tarrant County sheriff’s deputy helped deliver a baby on a 7-11 parking lot – just months before he will become a first-time father.
The deputy, Richard Allen Jr., got a call about a woman in labor on Westport Parkway at about 3 a.m. on Aug. 15.
He arrived to find the woman, Hope Boldin, moaning and screaming.
"I go up to mom, I say, 'Hi, how are you?'" Allen said.
Her water had already broken.
There was little time.
She didn't have much room in the front seat so they moved her to the back of her SUV.
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An ambulance was on the way.
"Can you push?” Allen asked her.
Her husband Adam was on the phone following a 911 operator’s instructions, untying his shoelaces to tie the baby’s umbilical cord.
Medics arrived, but seconds too late.
"Baby’s out,” the deputy shouted.
Right into his hands.
"To see the baby take its first breath and cry and the look on his face was nice,” Allen said.
"Congratulations,” the deputy told the parents. “It is – a boy.”
"I think the crown of his head hit my vest,” Allen said. “And I thought, ‘OK, OK, OK, I got him,’” he said. “It was nerve-wracking."
Samwise Alexander Boldin was born perfectly healthy and weighed 7 pounds 15 ounces.
"Nobody is prepared to give birth at a 7-11,” Hope Boldin said. “It just sort of happens."
And Deputy Allen has a personal interest in babies.
"I'm an expectant father too," he said. "I was kind of worried. Is this what I'm going to be dealing with later?"
The Boldins said they were trying to make it to the hospital but their urgent late-night trip was delayed by construction and a train blocking the road. That's when they decided to pull over and call 911.
The new parents are grateful for the deputy and parent-to-be.
"He went above and beyond for sure,” Adam Boldin said.
"Thanks for delivering my son," he told the deputy minutes after the birth.
The mother, back home, also expressed her appreciation.
"I would say thank you, you are my hero,” she said. “And I guess I owe you a Big Gulp."
