Officer adopts addicted stranger’s baby into family

what one Albuquerque police officers saw last September my god shook him to his core it caught me off guard it shocked me I was pretty upset in the decision he made in that very moment here's what I'm gonna do okay change lives forever in touched hearts around the world this is an act that's beyond anything I'd ever seen and I'll probably never see it again what officer Ryan Howlett swore to protect and serve the people of Albuquerque New Mexico he wasn't fulfilling a childhood dream in fact becoming a cop was his back-up plan I always thought if everything else fails I'll just go do that Ryan's real dream was thousands of miles away from the police he'd always called home I wanted to go be a missionary pilot flying bush airplanes in Africa a far-off dream that was soon will Within Reach I had my pilot's license when I was 17 I went to college I got my aviation maintenance degrees what do you look forward to every day Ryan tells our Nerissa Knight that after college he decided joining the police force would turn his dream into reality and achieve his ultimate goal I really was focused on getting into the air support unit I can work get a bunch of experience that would be very useful in my later goals of possibly still going flying in the bush but while training to become a cop Ryan realized he didn't need to travel halfway around the world to find people in need people like to think that the people who need help are the people over there they never stop and look around and say the people here need help so that's what Ryan Hulot's has been doing on the streets of Albuquerque ever since he became a police officer in 2011 when I got out from the academy and started working on the streets I realized that I couldn't leave the streets and I enjoyed taking calls and just being in the thick of everything on a Saturday in September one of those calls brought the cop to this convenience store for what seemed like a fairly routine assignment somebody was trying to steal beer and the store clerk wanted an officer out to tell him to leave by the time officer Hall 'its and his trainee arrived that would be beer thief was gone but something else what is attention I don't know why but I just happened to look off to the side of the building and down in the grass I saw Tom and Krystal bullets turned his body camera on and he approached the couple hello folks are you guys doing today well he got in the hands there ma'am this six year police veteran had been on the job long enough to know the answer so I'm not gonna lie it looks like you guys are getting ready to shoot up over here it's a scene he's become all too familiar with any officer who works anywhere in America right now is constantly facing the effects of this opioid crisis that everybody's talking about what he thought would be another routine arrest he's about to take an alarming turn as they were trying to hide the needles and in trying to move stuff around because they saw a police officer walking up when she moved that's when I noticed that she was very pregnant his reaction was immediate if you watch the lapel video and you can see I'm talking to them and then all of a sudden I notice it and I stop everything Ryan Hulot's isn't just a police officer he's also a father of four young children the thought of what crystal was doing into her unborn baby upset and outraged him and he couldn't hide his emotion and so I learned it out what was on my mind are you pregnant why are you gonna be doing that stuff gonna run your baby Ryan's raw honesty brought Krystal tamp to tears you're gonna kill your baby it was clear she had also thought about that and it was just as devastated by it as the officer well at that point I my primary concern was for her well-being and that of her unborn child all right man what's your name [Applause] clip oh all right how far along are you my god in the baby she was carrying wasn't your first child where's your second child right now [Applause] okay crystal confirmed what the officer feared most she just shot up morning how expensive is your habit right now 4,600 what she said next he never expected to hear what he thinks gonna happen to your child on the core nearly at that moment her humanity broke through I have never had anyone who's addicted tell me that they know they they can't take care of their child in their current circumstance but they want the best for their child and therefore they want to someone to take their child and place them in a loving family but that's exactly what crystal intended to find for her unborn baby you know who can adopt her baby [Applause] the officer was done asking questions for now and it wasn't really because he needed to find her a tissue really that was kind of my excuse to stop because I was very emotional emotional because of what he knew was about to happen as soon as she told me that words left her mouth that she she said I'm looking for someone to adopt my baby I asked her if she had found anybody and she told me no I knew right then that I was going to offer so why would a 27 year old husband and father of four offered to adopt the baby of a drug-addicted stranger for a cop whose mission in life is to help others the answer is very simple because I was the one hearing her when somebody asks for help the person who hears is responsible Krystal asked for help and officer Ryan was prepared to offer it I turned off my camera I went to my car to collect my thoughts officer Ryan Hollis was certain the couple he caught shooting up on the streets of Albuquerque would be going to jail you have to realize the gas station knows people kid with them the six year police veteran was wrong the fact that she was pregnant put a stop to what I was thinking Christel champs told the cops she was desperate to find someone to adopt her baby but at eight months pregnant time was running out I knew right then that I was going to offer first he had to find a way to win her trust to make him seem as someone other than a cop who would take her to jail the only thing I could think to do was to show her a photograph of my family show her that we have children that I understand what it's like to be a parent to want the best for your child Ryan tells her there was a night what he said next I know you're looking for someone to adopt your baby I know my wife I know that she'll say yes and we are willing to adopt her baby if that's what you need if she didn't want to stood off the baby then I would be willing to help her until the baby was born his offer left crystal in disbelief she was shocked the couple agreed to meet officer Ryan the following day he now needed to find his wife let her know baby number five could be on the way she was in the area that I worked a friend's going-away party and so I showed up for the few minutes I had on my break Ryan and Rebecca had talked about adopting or fostering someday but with four children under the age of five neither and thought it would be anytime soon I just walked up to her she's holding her ten-month-old baby Abigail and I said hey honey I just have to let you know I found this woman today she's shooting up heroin she's pregnant and I offered to a doctor baby just want to let you know did she think you were joking no but I think the way she puts it this is really gonna happen and she immediately just the way that she does okay let's do this she really just smiled at that moment instead okay yeah she got really excited and she just said okay winning over Rebecca was easy what officer Ryan didn't know is that he'd already won over Krystal as well I've heard her mention that when I said it she looked into my eyes and to see if I was telling the truth and she saw that it was the next night bullets had dinner with Krystal and Tom and all four began planning for the baby's arrival we put them up in a hotel pan then we just you know provided things as they needed and tried to assist any way that we could with prenatal care but there wasn't much time to prepare Krystal went into labor five weeks early I was very blessed that they let me in while the delivery was going on the baby was born with heroin and meth in her system for nearly two weeks Ryan or Rebecca Steen with her at the hospital while she endured painful withdrawals during one of his shifts Ryan came up with her name why I was feeding her and holding her praying for her singing to her and just said you know we have so much hope for you and said that sounds about right that's your name and I told her Becca and she said yeah that's her name after 11 days hope crystal Hulot's left the hospital and headed home to her new family and our Nerissa Knight paid a visit to baby hope and home how are you handling all this being a mom of five all five you're amazing it's busy definitely very busy but Rebecca has had 20 of practice caring for babies I've spent the last five years learning how to do small children and so another baby really wasn't that difficult it's mostly the challenge of learning the older ones and their new stages hope hasn't had any complications since leaving the hospital and fits right in with her four siblings providing a loving home for hope isn't the only thing the couple has done for Krystal and Tom you are helping the birth parents - you didn't give up on them we believe that people are redeemable everyone is lost to us or deployed and everybody is redeemable the couple found a rehab center to sponsor hopes birth parents both have been sober for two months officer Ryan says they're already preparing for life after rehab they're working on helping them not only get established but pick careers pick us a job that they might be interested in I just want to continue to see them flourish to become the best version who they're capable of being if you ask the hole it's they don't believe what they're doing is extraordinary but there are plenty of people who disagree I couldn't believe it I mean I just I couldn't believe it when sergeant Jim Edison heard what his officer was doing he was moved to tears I never met anybody so unselfish are you shocked by what he offered - I was I mean I thought my job was to teach him I thought my job was to talk to him about going home safe and make him mom proud and here was this young man teaching me the proud sergeant knew he had to find a way to honor officer Hollins so he wrote a letter nominating him for the department's first-ever outstanding service to the community award we didn't want the recognition was very apprehensive but when he read the letter to his department there wasn't a dry eye in the room sergeant Edison shared some of what he wrote with our Nerissa Knight I never thought I'd see anything like this act really an act beyond words beyond expression and frankly in my mind what a servant's heart actually looks like his litter eventually reached the Oval Office my sergeant called me and said Ryan you got a call from the White House and I said no you're kidding president Trump wanted to meet with officer Ryan to discuss the opioid crisis in America he also invited the whole ATS to the State of the Union address where he told the nation about what they'd done Ryan and Rebecca you embody the goodness of our nation thank you the couple received a rare bipartisan standing ovation for a couple as modest as the whole it's the intention has been unbelievable and unnecessary I think what we did it for we we did it for hope she's enough of a blessing to do it all over again they're just trying to use this time I told the world a message that maybe will encourage other people to do what they can to help others

Channel: True Crime News

Views: 5,493,650

Keywords: Albuquerque Police Officer Ryan Holets, Ryan Holets, True Crime Daily, Crime Watch Daily

Id: fwmpH88X59E

Length: 14min 1sec (841 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 07 2019