After six years with the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s office, Zakia Williams was transitioning into a new job as a school resource officer last fall. She was wrapping her first week of training and heading home to Loganville when a distraught couple flagged down her marked car on Sugarloaf Parkway.
“I first noticed this car in front of me swerving in and out of its lane,” said Williams. “At first, I thought, ‘It’s 3 p.m. and someone is DUI.’ But I didn’t want to make assumptions. So I pulled closer.”
That gave a clearer view of woman in the passenger seat holding a baby and signaling to Williams to roll her window down.
“I heard her yelling, ‘My baby’s not breathing,’” said Williams. “I told her to pull over, then I got on the radio and told them what I was doing, and got out of my vehicle.”
The couple handed the 3-week-old to Williams who got down on one knee and laid the baby, now limp, across her thigh. Then she started gentle CPR.
“It’s a little different than what you do with adults,” said Williams, whose work requires an annual certification in CPR. “That’s usually hand-over-hand compressions. With a baby, we’re trained to use only two fingers. I did some compressions and blew into her airway, and much to my relief, she started crying – which was a good sign.”
Emergency medical personnel arrived on the scene and assured everyone the baby was breathing normally. But they took her off to the hospital for an evaluation. As soon as she got home, Williams quickly called the hospital to check on her tiny patient.
“They said she was fine, but no one seemed to know what caused her to stop breathing,” she said.
Two months ago, the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce recognized Williams’ quick action with the Lifesaving Award, part of the 2021 Valor Public Safety Awards given to public safety pros who performed heroic and extraordinary acts. The honor came with a basket of goodies and gift cards.
“I was pretty shocked,” said Williams, now assigned to Richards Middle School in Lawrenceville. “I believe we put on these uniforms not to receive recognition or award. I was doing my job and motivated by the oath I took.”
Williams thinks the frantic parents saw “Gwinnett County School Police” on her car and thought she could help.
“They probably figured I must know something about kids,” she said. “They just didn’t know it was my first week.”
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