Arizona Police Officer Adopts Girl He Bonded With During Service Call

As a police lieutenant in Kingman, Arizona, Brian Zach sees a lot of kids in bad places.

"I had a lot of child abuse cases and there's always kids that I would bond with and I'd love to take them out of bad situations and just bring them home," Zach told Arizona Family.

Zach and his wife Cierra had the chance to make the situation right for a little blonde girl named Kaila, who is now the couple's daughter. They adopted the girl in August, more than two years after Zach first saw her on a service call.

In March 2018, Zach was called to Kaila's home when he noticed the girl.

"I recognized her injuries and what they meant and the abuse that she suffered in different stages, so I knew something wasn't right," he told ABC 15.

Zach and Kaila became fast friends at the Kingman Police Department while waiting for Arizona Department of Child Safety to check on the girl. She left an impression on the officer because he called child services to ask about Kaila's well-being and to see if he could visit her in the hospital while she recovered from her injuries.

Criminal charges were eventually filed against Kaila's guardians, and child services couldn't find any family members willing to take her in. So the Zach couple stepped in to foster her.

Brian and Cierra already have two teenage children, but they opened up their heart and home to the little girl.

"Within the second day she was calling my wife 'mom' or 'mommy. I was 'guy' for a week or two and then when she started preschool she learned who dad was," Zach told Good Morning America.

Now Kaila always has a reason to call Zach her dad after she was officially adopted on August 18.