'Make sure he's still alive': How 5 cops helped a mom deliver triplets on a Colorado porch

Community members are praising a group of Colorado law enforcement officers who spent one cold, snowy April night delivering triplets on a front porch.

The officers work for the city of Greeley, about 60 miles northeast of Denver. On April 18, they received a call about a woman screaming in someone’s front yard.

It was a slow night and locals were experiencing a spring snowstorm, with temperatures in the low 30s making for a pretty bad night weather-wise, said Sgt. Keith Stephens.

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There weren’t a lot of calls coming in so when someone called in about 2:30 a.m. to report a woman screaming in their front yard, Stephens along with officers Luke Bucknam, Riley Lampman, Scott Pivik and Daniel Trujillo were ready to respond.

Expecting to show up and find someone suffering from a mental health crisis, they instead found Tiffany Leonard, a pregnant woman whose water had broken. She had given birth to one of three babies and had the child cradled in her pajama pants on the front porch of her friends’ home.

“As we’re still processing this, we can hear this little faint cry from the baby that she had already delivered,” said Bucknam, who was one of the first at the scene.

Bucknam and his fellow officers were able to hold it together during the constantly-changing, dire situation and that night, Leonard gave birth to triplets.

Lovingly nicknamed the “Leonard-Mayeda Trifecta” by their father, the triplets were born just over three months early, Eric Mayeda told USA TODAY Wednesday.

Burt Isao weighed in at 1.23 pounds, Billy Bob weighed 1.94 pounds and Kikutaro Alan weighed 2.18 pounds at birth, their father said.

Officers work together to save mom and three babies

The officers had to work together to save the babies and their mother, they recalled this week.

Bucknam and Trujillo were the first on scene. Once they realized what was happening, Trujillo grabbed his radio and let dispatch know so they could send help.

Bucknam cut the woman’s pants off and found the first baby. As everything unfolded, the homeowners came out and realized they knew the mother. The officers asked them for items to help deliver the babies safely, so they brought towels and later, bread ties to tie off the baby’s umbilical cord.

Bucknam led the way and told Trujillo to tie off the umbilical cord six inches away from the baby’s body. He also told Trujillo where to cut the cord.

The baby boy was turning bluish purple and wasn’t breathing correctly, he recalled, so once the baby was in the warmth of a patrol car, he and Pivik tried to get the infant to respond.

“Officer Bucknam told me to agitate him, keep him moving, make sure he’s alive,” Pivik recalled.

Bucknam decided to perform CPR on the baby boy while inside the car to save him.

Billy Bob Leonard-Mayeda

Checking in with mom

Elsewhere on site, Trujillo checked on the mother and caught medics up to speed when they arrived.

“As this is all progressing, she advises me that the second baby is coming out,” he said, adding that her baby was breached so he had to get her to push. He supported the baby’s bottom with his hand and counted to three so she could push.

The second baby was delivered soon after, so he yelled “Hey, I got another one,” to his fellow officers.

Officers Bucknam and Lampman came over to wrap the second baby boy in a towel. They got his umbilical cord tied off and cut, then Lampman took the baby to the ambulance.

The ambulance took off with both babies while they waited for anaother to come and get the child’s mother, who still had one baby left to deliver. She was then taken to the hospital to deliver her third baby boy.

Kikutaro Alan Leonard-Mayeda

‘We actually don’t do this,’ sergeant says

The officers said Bucknam’s experience was critical and really helped keep Leonard and her babies safe.

“I think we are definitely trained in high stress scenarios all the time,” Lampman said. “I think the big focus was just teamwork in general, but Luke was super beneficial in that and just helping guide us.”

Bucknam said their department believes in helping out wherever necessary.

“There’s no way I could juggle three babies and cutting cords and doing CPR and all that on my own,” he said. “It’s just that resourcefulness and that willingness even if you’re not familiar with something, just to dive in.”

Stephens said this is not something officers are trained to do.

“We actually don’t do this,” he said, adding that Bucknam has about 10 years of EMT experience under his belt. “He’s very handy when it comes to that type of stuff.”

His team of officers did an outstanding job communicating with each other and keeping Leonard and her babies safe, he said, adding “You would have thought they delivered 100 babies.”

Headquarters for the Greeley Police Department in Colorado.

‘The outcome of the story would be way different’

Mayeda, the triplets’ father, said the triplets’ mother splits her time between his home and her mother’s, which are about 10 blocks apart. The night she gave birth, she was sitting in her car when she had bad contractions.

She didn’t want to wake her mother or anyone else in the house just in case it was a false alarm, so she walked to a friend’s house about three to five minutes away.

“Just to get to his front porch and be able to get within knocking distance of the door, that took everything she had,” he said.

Once his friend realized what was happening, he called Mayeda to let him know so he could meet them at the hospital.

Mayeda and Leonard named the triplets after loved ones who have passed on.

Burt, the smallest, is named after Mayeda’s cousin and best friend who passed away. Billy is named after Leonard’s mother, who died in 2019. Lastly, there’s Kikutaro, named after Mayeda’s great-grandfather.

Burt Isao Leonard-Mayeda

The babies are doing well but Burt will likely undergo a procedure due to a heart condition common in premature babies, his father said.

Mayeda said things could’ve turned out a lot different had it not been for the cops who showed up to help.

“The cops that showed up, they were clutch,” he said. “If it wasn’t for those guys, I think the outcome of the story would be way different. It was starting to snow. It was raining that night.”

The family has started a GoFundMe to provide for the babies, who were delivered just over three months early. The money will cover bills, car seats, cribs and more.

Donate at www.tinyurl.com/GreeleyTriplets, and keep up with the triplets on social media at www.facebook.com/leonard.mayeda.trifecta.

Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY’s NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Follow her on Twitter at @SaleenMartin or email her at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ‘Make sure he’s still alive’: How 5 cops helped a mom deliver triplets on a Colorado porch