A police officer and his wife decided to adopt a child he saved after she endured abuse in her home on several occasions.
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Kingman Police Department Lt. Brian Zach,39, met Kaila two years ago after responding to a welfare check at her home. At the time, he worked as a patrol sergeant and said this was the third time a call was made about Kaila’s home regarding her safety. The extent of her injuries was very severe and when child protective services were called in to find her a temporary home, the father of two stepped in immediately.
“I went there and realized that her injuries were definitely abuse and they needed to be investigated. I took care of her, took her back to the station … We watched ‘Wreck-It Ralph,’ and we just bonded. When I came home that night, I told my wife about this little adorable girl that we got to meet and I wanted to just bring her home,”
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He added that the agency allowed Zach to become Kaila’s foster parent due to fictive kinship based on their bond from the first night they met each other. “But if they can’t have a family, they can go to a foster home. What they did in our case is they used our relationship from bonding that first night for what they call a fictive kinship,” Zach said. The family loved and cared for Kaila and hoped her case would allow them to fully adopt the four-year-old. In August, they finalized the adoption papers back in August.
“The best thing to come out of 2020 is the fact that we gained an official member of our family, That was my Christmas present.”