Birch Bay man rescues infant who wandered into traffic, water

A Birch Bay man rescued an unattended infant who wandered away from home and darted across Birch Bay Drive into the waters of Birch Bay.

On the morning of June 21, Kelvin Barton, 63, was at home on Lora Lane when he looked out the window and saw an infant unattended in a neighbor’s yard. He knew his neighbor wasn’t home and that the child didn’t belong to this neighbor, so he became concerned. “I thought there must be a mom around somewhere, but that I better go out and take a look,” he said.

The young boy was wearing a diaper, a T-shirt and a sweatshirt but no shoes, and he was carrying a blanket. When Barton went outside, he looked in his neighbor’s yard and didn’t see any adults around. Meanwhile, the toddler had started wandering down the road.

Concerned for the infant’s safety, Barton hurried over to nearby Francis Lane, where he believed the toddler’s parents lived. “I knew the lady there had a small child, so I went over to knock on the door. They had a child fence up, so I knocked on the window,” he said.

There was no answer. Barton then had a tough choice to make. “It was either watch the child or find the parents, and I went with the child,” he said. As Barton tried to keep up with the wandering infant, he called 911 on his cell phone. “The child was pretty fast,” he said. “The child actually covered several blocks, and went out onto Birch Bay Drive.”

Barton, who has back problems and sometimes uses a mobility scooter, did his best to catch up with the infant, who came dangerously close to traffic on Birch Bay Drive. The traffic was “jamming up” on the drive, said Barton, and at one point, a charter bus came to a halt near the toddler.

Suddenly, Barton lost his cell phone connection, and the call with 911 dropped. As he observed the infant dart across the road and go straight into the waters of Birch Bay, he began yelling for bystanders to assist. People along the bay took notice and started approaching to help.

Concerned that the infant might drown, Barton followed him into the water. “I was up to my knees in water,” he said. “That’s how deep the child was.”

That’s when officers from the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office arrived on scene. After Barton retrieved the infant from the water, an officer removed the child’s wet clothing and placed him in the front seat of the patrol car on full heat to warm him. “The child appeared to be uninjured and not in need of medical attention,” said the officer’s report.

In the meantime, the child had been reported missing to 911. One of the child’s parents soon arrived on scene, where Barton was standing with the officers. She “appeared to be slightly under the influence of some substance,” said the officer’s report, and she “admitted she had smoked marijuana the night before.”

The parent “said she was asleep when the child left the house.” She then started insulting Barton, using the f-word repeatedly. The officer told her that Barton had potentially saved the child’s life, but she ignored the officer and continued to insult Barton. “I told her that Kelvin found the child and he was the hero, not the villain here,” the officer’s report stated. “She ignored my talk and continued to insult him. She also started insulting me.”

A short time later, officers contacted the child’s other parent, who “was uncooperative and also appeared to be slightly under the influence of some substance. He also admitted to smoking marijuana the night before. He said [the child] can reach up and turn the door knob and that is how he got out.” The officer suggested various child proofing devices to keep the same thing from happening in the future. However, the man “took no responsibility for the child walking off and continued to be rude to me.”

The officer’s report noted that it will be forwarded to Child Protective Services. The child’s exact age was not disclosed by the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office, but Barton estimates that the toddler was about 20 months old.