A Texas cop threw a drunken woman to the ground, knocking her unconscious when her head hit the pavement, as the DWI suspect's daughter screamed “mommy, mommy!” and ran over to help, according to witnesses and cell phone video.
The violent takedown stunned bystanders outside a Round Rock strip mall, though the city’s police chief, who had seen patrol car dash camera footage of the incident, defended Officer Ben Johnson.
Police say Viviana Keith, who was clearly intoxicated in multiple public places and then drove drunk with her 6-year-old daughter in the car, was resisting arrest.
"The officer was very professional, was talking to her calm, he wasn't excited, he wasn't angry," Banks told KVUE-TV. "It's unfortunate, the fact that this lady did what appears to hit her head and was knocked unconscious, but I'll tell you, the officer did what he was supposed to do in a situation like that."
The Tuesday takedown was set into motion after police received calls when Keith walked into a Deluxe Nails shop and looked a bit worse for wear, witnesses said.
She was a little loud, and disruptive," another customer, Rebecca Tomlinson, told the TV station. "She said she was very tired, really tired and they said, 'Maybe you should go home and get some sleep,' and then she turned around and stumbled out."
Keither then got in her car, the little girl in tow, before cops cornered her inside the shopping center’s parking lot.
"I seen her resisting and, in the beginning she was jerking her arm from him," Tomlinson told the ABC affiliate.
That’s when video, taken by a bystander who had been inside a nearby Wingstop, shows Officer Johnson swing Keith to the ground. She had no time to brace herself and smashed face-first into the ground, instantly unconscious, her arm limply spread on the cement.
"It looked like she was dead," witness Viviana Garcia told the station. "The little girl was screaming, 'Mommy, mommy.'"
The man who filmed the encounter feared the worst.
"When I look back at the tape, I can see her head bounce off the concrete because when he threw her down, she wasn't able to brace herself," the man, who asked not to be identified, told the station. "She was absolutely unconscious. There were a couple of other gentleman in the store with me and we were saying 'is she breathing?' Because at first we weren't seeing her stomach rise and fall."
Officer Johnson flipped the woman on her back and took her pulse as medics arrived on scene. Keith’s mug shot shows a blackened left eye.
Witnesses rushed to aid the little girl, who had stepped in to help her mommy.
"We started talking to the little girl and she started telling us what had been going on. That her mom had been intoxicated all day and that she was hungry," Garcia told KVUE.
Keith faces charges of DWI with a child younger than 15 and interfering with public duties and is due in court May 21, records show.
Police are investigating the use of force by Johnson, a four-year veteran of the department. Keith’s mother said her daughter does not remember what happened during the violent police encounter.
“It hurts. I knew something had happened but I didn't know it was that bad," Diane Durvasula told the news station. "She's out for a while obviously, and her daughter, my granddaughter saw all that. That's just too much. That's not acceptable."
