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SARASOTA, Fla. (WFLA) — A Sarasota police officer was injured after the suspect she was helping arrest bit her on the hand, according to body cam video released by the Sarasota Police Department.
The department said at around 5:20 p.m. Saturday, officers responded to a domestic battery incident involving a pregnant woman.
The victim, who was five weeks pregnant, told officers that Darryl Williams, 36, of Sarasota “grabbed, pulled, and tossed her around at her home,” police said.
Williams was already gone before officers arrived, so they got a warrant for his arrest on a charge of aggravated battery of a pregnant woman.
The following Sunday afternoon, police officers saw Williams entering Express Grocery on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Way.
The department said that officers tried to arrest him, but he ran and struggled with the officers into the parking lot.
In the body cam video, officers are seen trying to apprehend Williams on the ground as he yelled that he didn’t have a warrant. Bystanders also questioned why he was being arrested.
“What did I do? I ain’t got no warrant!” Williams yelled while he was on the ground as he continued to scream.
At one point, Williams began biting a female officer and did not let go.
“The officer, an adult woman, whose name is being withheld under Marsy’s Law, tried to pull her hand away but could not due to the bite’s depth,” the police department said.
The officers began punching Williams in the head to make him let go.
“He’s biting her! Stop!” a male officer is heard saying.
Eventually, he let go of the female officer’s hand. Photos released by the police department, which we cannot include in this story due to the graphic images, showed that the officer suffered a bloody gash on her hand as a result of the suspect’s bite.
The suspect continued to resist arrest and shouted slurs at the officers as they carried him into a patrol car. While the officers carried him, Williams spit on another officer, as seen in the video.