Officer Holets and his wife adopted a newborn baby from a woman he met on a police call. | stock photo
Officer Holets and his wife adopted a newborn baby from a woman he met on a police call. | stock photo
A detective from the Albuquerque police department delivered a speech at the Republican National Convention, which took place Aug. 24 through 27.
He appeared on a local WJR radio talk show, where he said he is not surprised by the surge in violent protests in U.S. cities following the killing of George Floyd and others in police custody.
“I think that a lot of us kind of knew that something might be coming, especially with the country getting locked down and with coronavirus,” Ryan Holets said on "The Frank Beckmann Show." “That type of a thing is unprecedented, and I think a lot of nerves get frayed by that. And then you tack on what happened in Minneapolis that sparked everything with George Floyd. And it kind of made for just, like, this perfect recipe for disaster.”
Holets has a degree in aviation maintenance technology and a pilot’s license, and he had planned on a career in aviation before deciding to become a police officer.
“A friend of mine convinced me that this would be something worth doing and I agreed,” he told Beckmann. He never regretted the decision.
In 2017, Holets and his wife adopted the baby of a woman who was a heroin addict whom he met on a police call.
“I had just started my shift and responded to a call for service at a gas station,” Holets said in his convention speech. “When I arrived, I saw a man and woman sitting on a grassy slope. I recognized the telltale signs: a needle, a spoon.”
As a police officer, Holets said he “encounters the ravages of addiction every day, but nothing could prepare me for what I discovered as I approached them.” The woman was "very pregnant."
He asked the mother if she knew she was harming the baby by doing drugs. “She crumpled and burst into years,” Holets said in his speech.
The mother, Crystal, told Holets that she loved her unborn child.
“She wanted the best for her baby,” the officer said in his speech. “When Crystal said that she was looking for a family to adopt her baby, God showed me exactly what I had to do.”
Today, Hope is now “a thriving 2-year-old, and Crystal is fast approaching three years of recovery. She is a dear friend and a constant inspiration to me and others," he told the convention audience.
Holets said he has a “special place in my heart” for those facing opioid addiction and praised President Donald Trump’s efforts to confront the crisis.
Alerts Sign-up