WASHINGTON - ABC 7 cameras were rolling as D.C. police jumped into action to rescue a mother and baby being held against their will in an upstairs bedroom of a house on Hunt Place in Northeast.

The officer climbed up a ladder to the roof of the home's porch where the mother handed off her infant through a window. The baby is lowered to safety but the rescue effort wasn't over.

The officers tried to get the mother to climb out of the window but she was too scared. Instead, the officer climbs inside the house followed by a second officer.

Neighbors watched on with concern.

"It was crazy for her to have to go through it. It's something no mother should have to go through," said neighbor Donald Brown.

Police say they had to do something. The woman's boyfriend, 28-year-old Daniel Spriggs, was downstairs with a gun. Spriggs was wanted for assault with a deadly weapon on a prior domestic assault case.

His father says he wishes his son had surrendered.

"He should have come out like a man and faced what he had to face," said Daniel Spriggs, Sr. "It makes him look bad."

The SWAT team was eventually able to get the woman out of the window Then they went in and arrested her boyfriend, bringing Daniel Spriggs out in handcuffs.

Police Chief Cathy Lanier (web | news | bio) described it as, quote, "heroic actions by a team that does it daily."

"When you take a person into custody after that length of time with no injuries, we're all very happy," said Cpt.Jeff Harold with the Metropolitan Police Department (web | news) .

The baby is now in the custody of the Department of Child and Family Services and will stay in foster care as police investigate this case.

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