Taste of Tacoma went viral and it wasn’t for the food. Woman’s arrest sparks Twitter outrage

A video of a woman being arrested at Taste of Tacoma last weekend sparked a Twitter firestorm.

The 53-second clip shows a 30-year-old woman face down on the ground with a police officer straddling her legs and holding her left arm behind her back.

A second officer can be seen trying to move her right arm behind her back so they can handcuff her, but she refuses to put her arm back.

After several seconds, a third officer kneeling nearby reaches around the first officer to put the handcuffs on the woman as the other two officers each hold one of the woman’s arms.

As the woman cries and struggles, a voice can be heard urging her to comply with police commands and, “Don’t make it worse.”

In the background, two other officers are arresting a 26-year-old man who tried to stop police from taking the woman into custody.

Someone tweeted the clip Saturday, and it since has been viewed more than 15,600 times and retweeted more than 385 times.

Police gave this account of the incident, which took place about 8 p.m. Saturday in Point Defiance Park, where the food festival was held.

It started when a 56-year-old man saw the woman strike her 3-year-old son.

He says the woman punched the boy. Other witnesses say the mother slapped her son on the back of the head with an open hand.

The man confronted the mother and threatened to call police. She walked away. He followed.

The woman allegedly punched the man as he continued to harangue her, and he flagged down a police officer working the event.

The officer approached the woman and told her he needed to investigate the child-abuse claim.

“When the officer went to contact her, she became very indignant, yelling and screaming and refusing to provide information,” police spokeswoman Loretta Cool said.

The woman repeatedly tried to walk away from police, so one of the officers grabbed her arm. When she allegedly yanked her arm away, he tried to take her to the ground to put handcuffs on her.

That’s when the 26-year-old man intervened and jumped on the officer’s back.

Another officer grabbed the man around the waist and took him to the ground. A third officer trying to help control the man was elbowed twice in the face, according to court documents.

“The defendant stated that he felt the female who (the officer) was contacting had done nothing wrong,” records show.

The woman was arrested on suspicion of criminal assault, resisting arrest and obstructing a police officer.

After she was taken to jail, her son was cared for by one of her friends at Taste of Tacoma.

The 26-year-old man was charged Monday with two counts of third-degree assault. He was released on his own recognizance after pleading not guilty.

The mother and her friend were two of three people arrested at Saturday at Taste of Tacoma. A third person was arrested on suspicion of theft.

This story was originally published June 26, 2018 at 1:44 PM.