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WSP trooper meets baby girl after traffic stop during mom's labor

Christopher Ryzebol of Seattle knew the moment he caught-up to a Washington State Patrol trooper just after 1 a.m. Oct. 13 on eastbound I-90 that he was speeding.

Ryzebol didn’t care.

Little baby Thea was on her way.

“As soon as I turned the lights on, and hit the back of the car with the spotlight, I could see her face,” Trooper Walt Ray told KIRO 7 on Friday.

Mom-to-be Kristin Ryzebol was facing backward in the car’s passenger seat, on all fours, in active labor, when the lights started flashing, her husband beside her, gripping the steering wheel.

“I did not want to stop,” she said.

The couple was still on Mercer Island and needed to get to Swedish Hospital in Issaquah.

Ray remembered the moment he approached the driver.

“He rolled down the window and just looked totally distraught and said, ‘We’re on the way to the hospital! She’s in labor!’ And the only thing I could think of saying was just ‘GO!’ I didn’t want a baby on the side of the road.”

“I was pretty sure he was going to let us go,” the new dad said with a laugh.

Thea wasn’t born until hours later, but her parents were so thankful Ray didn’t delay them with a $156 ticket for driving 74 mph in a 60-mph zone, they wanted to meet him to get a picture and say thanks.

The young family met Ray Friday at the WSP District Headquarters in Bellevue.

“Any time we tell anyone what happened, they say, ‘you mean like in the movies?

That only happens in movies and on TV,’” Kristin told KIRO 7.

“No, it happened in real life, and so it just seemed fun to connect with the trooper afterwards.”

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