UCO Officer Goes Above & Beyond To Help Injured Student

Officer Jayden Freeman with the UCO Police Department went to work expecting a normal day, but things got really exciting, really quick.  

“I mean I had just pulled into the parking lot in front of the PED, I didn’t have my badge, I didn’t have my gun, my belt,” said officer Jayden Freeman with the UCO Police Department.  

As he got out of his car, he heard cries for help. 

“Hey, hey, I think I broke my ankle,” recalled Freeman.  

Riley Hall’s grandmother had just dropped her off at school from fall break.  

“We had brought all the groceries in, taken everything in, said see you later,” said UCO student Riley Hall.  

That’s when she realized she had forgotten something very important to her in her grandma’s car.  

“Oh, key point here, she refuses to get a cell phone,” said Hall.  

For Hall, there was only one thing to do.  

“I dropped everything, left my phone, left my keys, wallet, everything and booked it out of my front door,” said Hall.  

“She ran from Commons 3000 which is about a quarter of a mile, and she was booking it chasing after her grandmother,” said Freeman.  

Riley, in her determination, jumped two rows of shrubs.  

“Bushes were not the problem it was the hidden curb on the other side of the bushes, and my ankle snapped, click,” said Hall.  

Riley had to be transported to the hospital, but she had other concerns.  

“I wasn’t worried about my open front door, or like all of that stuff, I was like, but these groceries,” said Hall.  

Officer Freeman agreed to secure Riley’s apartment and put her groceries up. A task he took very seriously.  

“I kind of got too much into the zone, like I got another call, and I was about to head to it, and I’m sitting here organizing stuff on the counter and I’m like what am I doing?” said Freeman. 

The act of kindness was not surprising to his fellow officers.  

“That’s just who he is as a person, everybody is like oh yeah he went and put away her groceries, I am like yeah that sounds about right,” said Sgt. Tiffany Stephens, with the UCO Police Department.  

X-rays showed Hall has a really bad sprain with possible tears to ligaments in her ankle. She’s a dance major and will be sidelined from dancing for at least 6 to 8 weeks.  

Officer Freeman has been with campus security for two years and does not consider himself a hero by any means.  

“Anything I can do to help somebody, that’s why I serve, you know that’s kind of what we do here at UCO,” said Freeman.  

Freeman is actually still a student at UCO, and of course he sees law enforcement in his future.