Officer Gregory Palomo performed CPR on the baby for about a minute before the infant began breathing again. He credited his quick response to department training and watching his own children being born. “All I could think was, I’m a father of two myself. … I just really needed to get that baby breathing,” Officer Palomo said. “I couldn’t imagine if a parent had to lose their child at birth.” Officer Palomo was on patrol when police received reports of a woman crying and screaming for medical attention near Laney College at Sixth Street. Officer Palomo arrived to find the woman holding a baby in the front seat of a car parked at a motel. The woman was alone with the baby, and it appeared she’d given birth prematurely, Officer Palomo said, perhaps no more than five minutes before he arrived. Officer Palomo took the infant from the woman and began the life-saving procedures, first by clearing the airways with a finger sweep and then by gently patting between the boy’s shoulder blades to stimulate breathing. “And, thankfully, it worked,” he said. The officer then handed the baby back to his mother and instructed her to grab a blanket and hold the boy chest-to-chest to keep him warm. After a few moments Officer Palomo noticed the infant had stopped crying and once again was having trouble breathing. “I just basically took two fingers and rubbed the baby’s chest for stimulation,” he said. The maneuver prompted the baby to start crying again, and he remained stable until paramedics arrived. “I think she was pretty relieved,” Officer Palomo said of the mother. When asked what his wife thought about his actions, Officer Palomo chuckled and said he got an “atta boy.” The officer had never before performed CPR on a real baby, he said, but Palomo added “there is no ‘typical’ (patrol day) for Oakland. It’s always different.” Both the boy and mother were in good condition Wednesday and recovering at the hospital, authorities said. Officer Palomo was hailed as a hero by Oakland Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick. “This is what Oakland does every single day, and is ready serve our community,” Kirkpatrick said. “But this is a superstar."