LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (NewsNation Now) — A Little Rock police officer says he was in the right place at the right time when he saved a two-year-old boy from choking on a piece of candy. 

On Sunday, the officer was on patrol in Little Rock’s Riverdale neighborhood when the driver of the SUV in front of him suddenly slammed on their breaks.

“I’m just glad I was there,” Officer James Phillips of the Little Rock Police Department said. “As I get right here, I could see the mother holding the child,”

He said the boy wasn’t moving and was choking on a piece of candy.

“The mother unlocked the door and she kind of just threw the child into my arms.” Phillips said.

Phillips, a dad himself, says it was not only his training, but fatherly instincts that kicked in.

“I started giving a couple slaps on the back, I realized that wasn’t working, and I went into doing the Heimlich and a couple of presses of the Heimlich, the piece of candy fell out,” Phillips said. “It was like life came right back to him.

A life-saving moment-this officer and family will soon never forget.

NewsNation affiliate KARK contributed to this report.