Andy Black: Cop Feeding Baby In Heartwarming Viral Photo ‘Embarrassed’ By All The Attention

A photo of police officer Andy Black feeding a baby with a bottle went viral this week — even though the snap was taken back on May 31 — offering a gentler look at the job of a cop. Black, a grandpa of 12 plus two more “adopted” grandkids, says he’s thankful for that, even though he says he finds the attention he’s received “somewhat embarrassing.”

Black, a dad of four, has worked as a cop in the Overland Park, Kansas, police department for 27 years and for 25 of those, he has moonlighted as a security officer in his off-duty hours at the Oak Park Mall.

On that day in May, he was called to a disturbance in the mall, and when he arrived he found that a woman had suffered a seizure. Fortunately, she was feeling a bit better by the time Black got there and paramedics were on the scene. But she was still confused.

The first thing Andy Black noticed was a baby sitting in a carrier on the floor as the woman’s worried husband was preoccupied speaking to the medical personnel.

“She had what looked like a 2-month-old baby girl at her feet,” Black told NBC’s Today Show online. “She was completely disoriented. I could tell she didn’t know where she was. She picked her baby up, she started trying to feed the baby, and I was afraid she was going to drop her. So I asked if I could hold her and she said sure. The baby was crying, so I fed her.”

As he was giving the baby a bottle, a local photographer and artist, Jilli Nel, happened to pass by — and felt compelled to whip out her camera.

Here’s the whole photo she took and posted on her Facebook page— the photo that has since gone widely viral.

“I just had to stop, chat and ask if I may take his photo,” Nel wrote. “Paramedics were helping this little ones Mommy onto a stretcher and this kind officer took over the babies feed. This is what we don’t get to see… the times of the quiet hero…going beyond his duty. My heart was Sooooo warmed.”

The incident took place just a couple of days before an officer in Texas went out of his way to accompany an 18-year-old to the teen’s high school graduation after the young man’s parents were killed by a drunk driver. See that Inquisitr story at this link.

When Nel told the officer “how amazing he was,” he responded, “Well, I have 14 grandchildren. I think I have this covered.”

Of course, Andy Black — described by fellow officers as “humble” — just shrugged the whole thing off. “I did nothing spectacular. I did what any other police officers I work with would do that day,” he said.

[Image: Jilli Nel Facebook]