What Would You Have Done?

CENTREVILLE, IL (KTVI/CNN) - A group of nurses in Illinois paid the bond to get a father out of jail after he was arrested while rushing his daughter to the hospital.

Darius Hinkle admits he doesn’t have a valid license and says he was flying down the street, but he says he did it because his 1-year-old daughter Demani was choking on a penny.

“The first thing in my mind was get her to the hospital,” Hinkle said.

And that’s what he did, as fast as he could. Officers later told him he was going over 100 miles per hour. “That’s my daughter. I’m not going to let anything happen to her,” he said.

The dad said there were lights and sirens behind him for miles, until he finally arrived at the hospital with his daughter and her mother.

“They told us to get out and put our hands up,” the mother, Donecia Pittman, said. “And I got out, put my hands up and yelled, and I told the police, ‘My baby is choking.’ And I told them multiple times that she was choking. They were just worried about the fact that we were speeding."

Hinkle said multiple police agencies were on scene. He was arrested and taken to jail.

Pittman said she had just arrived to the jail to try to bond him out when she learned of the nurses’ kindness.

“Somebody was up there and said, 'I am here to bond out Darius Hinkle,’” she said. “And I was looking, like I didn’t know who it was. And when I looked out the door to see who it was, she spoke, and she says, ‘I’m the nurse from Touchette Hospital.’”

The couple said they are so grateful to the nurses.

“I just, I mean, I can't thank them enough,” Hinkle said.

The hospital confirms those nurses chipped in for the bond. Police say remember to call 911 first in an emergency.

My husband is a deputy, but I am completely on the parents’ side in this situation. As the mother to an 8 month old, my main concern would be getting my child to the hospital. I wouldn’t be worried about speeding. I think once the police realized what was going on, they should have dropped it. Granted, the mother could have called 911 while they were driving to alert police to what was going on and they should have had their flashers on. BUT, common sense goes out the window in a situation like this. What do you think? Were police “just doing their job” or were the parents justified?