CHICAGO (WGN) Last Thursday, Earl Abernathy was stuck in traffic in Chicago when he heard a noise.
“I was sitting there, windows down, listening to music,” Abernathy said. “We were talking like, it was hot. I said, ‘Do you hear a baby crying?’ She was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t see a baby, though.'”
That’s when Abernathy turned his head and saw a car seat sitting in front of the steps leading into St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church.
“I saw the baby like, trying to wiggle his way out of the car seat and it tipped over,” Abernathy said. “So, I just threw the hazards on, jumped out, ran over there [and] got the baby.”
Next, Abernathy called the police and took to Facebook Live, where he quickly got messages from people who recognized the child.
“It was just, man, it was crazy,” Abernathy said. “Like, within minutes, the grandma had inboxed me like, ‘That’s my grandbaby!’ And then the auntie inboxed like, ‘That’s my niece!'”
As it would turn out, the baby was a 7-month-old girl who was in a vehicle that was carjacked in the city’s North Lawndale neighborhood earlier that morning. After Abernathy found her, the baby was taken to the hospital for observation, then reunited with her family.
“I think he reacted, in a way, because of who we are as a school, who he is as a person,” said Thomas Gattuso, Principal of Sullivan House High School.
Abernathy works at Sullivan, which is also his alma mater. He is a counselor and a basketball coach at the school.
“We are so proud,” said Darnell Payne, Abernathy’s uncle. “Our whole month, our whole morning, was dedicated to Earl … giving him a moment.”
Payne said he’s started an online fundraiser to help out his nephew. The minivan he was driving when he stopped to save that baby broke down over the weekend, and he’s hoping to raise money to get him a new car. As of Thursday morning, more than $8,000 had been raised.
The Chicago Police Department said they arrested 38-year-old Jeremy Ochoa in connection to the carjacking, which occurred at a nearby gas station.
Ochoa is facing aggravated kidnapping and vehicular hijacking charges.
