SUNBURY, Pa. — Six-foot-1, 230-pound city police officer Brad Slack dashed out of a home after being asked by his nightshift partner to act as a nurse as the two were the first to arrive on a call for an early birth at 3 a.m. Thursday.

Slack never did return upstairs with the medical gloves from the cruiser needed to help Travis Bremigen deliver that baby boy after spotting a startled little girl in the home.

Instead, Slack’s patrolman instincts kicked in and he did what any good cop would do — with nail polish in hand.

“I helped her paint her nails,” Slack said. “She stayed calm so I sat with her.”

When Bremigen next saw his fellow police officer — after the ambulance arrived to relieve him from his duty — Slack was found downstairs, applying nail polish to the fingernails of a 5-year-old girl who was frightened by all the commotion in her house.

The officers were on patrol when a call came that assistance was needed, and arrived before the ambulance at the home.

Bremigen and Slack heard a woman screaming inside and were met by a large pit bull-Labrador retriever mix standing guard at the doorway before the pair moved past the large dog and ran to an upstairs bedroom to find the woman, who was in labor.

“Then,” Bremigen said, “her water broke. I asked Slack for a pair of gloves, but when he saw she was in labor, he was already halfway out the door.”

Slack ran to get gloves from the police cruiser. Bremigen, who has performed such a delivery three times, realized there was no time to waste as the woman said she needed to deliver the baby.

“I saw the baby’s head and before I knew it she had delivered,” Bremigen said. “I cleaned out the nose and mouth and got the baby breathing and the little boy started crying so I knew we were in good shape.”

By the time the ambulance personnel arrived and made their way into the home to relieve Bremigen, they noticed Slack downstairs with the young girl, keeping her calm through the remainder of her mother’s delivery.

“He did an awesome job,” Slack said of Bremigen’s delivery. “He just did a great job in this situation.”

Sunbury, Pennsylvania, police Chief Brad Hare agreed.

“It’s awesome,” Hare said. “We are trained for these types of situations and these guys once again did a great job. This is what we are proud to do here at the Sunbury Police Department.”

“These were split-second decisions,” Bremigen said. “We are not looking for any credit here. This is something we are supposed to do and we are just happy we were in the right place at the right time to help.”

Hare said police would not release the name of the woman or newborn boy of Thursday morning’s incident, citing HIPAA violations.

The Sunbury (Pa.) Daily Item provided details for this story.