A woman who allegedly threatened customers inside a Walmart while brandishing a knife was dropped like a sack of potatoes by a responding police officer after she failed to obey the officer's repeated commands to drop the weapon.
According to ABC7, officers were called to the Walmart in Summerfield, Marion County, Florida at around 1:30pm on Wednesday, March 30th. Store officials told officers that a woman, later identified as Brandy McGowan, had entered the store and threatened customers and workers with a brick and a knife.
Body cam footage released by the Marion County Sheriff's Office shows one of the responding officers, Deputy Christopher Witte and Property Crimes Detective Pamela Thomas apprehend McGowan.
After several verbal attempts by Witte to get McGowan to drop the knife, Thomas also asks her to draw her attention. In the meantime, Witte holsters his service pistol and points his taser at McGowan.
He discharges the taser at McGowan and her stiff body falls down on top of a merchandise shelf. Witte and Thomas then are able to arrest McGowan and move the knife away from her.
An investigation reportedly revealed that McGowan initially entered the store with only the brick and threatened customers, but found a pocket knife for sale and used a pair of scissors to get it out of the packaging. Then, she used the knife to threaten customers and workers until Witte and Thomas arrived.
After she was arrested, it was discovered that McGowan had ingested methamphetamine earlier in the day. She was taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation. Upon her release, McGowan was taken to the Marion County Jail, where she is still being held.