Video shows Texas police officer 'hitting pregnant woman'

Deanna Robinson was arrested during a child abuse inquiry

Deanna Robinson

Authorities in Texas have launched an investigation following the release of video footage that appears to show a police officer striking a heavily pregnant woman.

Texas Rangers began their inquiry after the emergence of the footage in which an unidentified police officer hits Deanna Robinson, who was 38 weeks pregnant and who had been arrested at her parents home near Dallas.

This week, Hunt County sheriff Randy Meeks told a press conference it was possible the officer was trying to fend off the woman as she tried to reach for his weapon. He said he was not certain Ms Robinson was reaching for the firearm, but said that his officer had told investigators she had loosened his ammunition belt during a struggle.

“Which narrative is correct,” he said, according to the Associated Press. “I don’t know. I wasn’t there.”

The video was taken when Ms Robinson was arrested on 4 March at the property in Quinlan, 40 miles north-east of Dallas, during a child abuse investigation.

It shows her pressed against a counter, then the officer raising his arm and striking her. Ms Robinson, 38, is heard screaming, and shouting out: “I’m pregnant.”

Mr Meeks said Texas Rangers are leading the investigation and he has begun an internal review to determine if policy violations occurred during the confrontation with Ms Robinson, who has called for the deputy to be charged with assault.

Ms Robinson, an Air Force veteran, was arrested on charges of assault on a public servant, resisting arrest and interfering with child custody. She spent nearly a week in jail.

“There was no professionalism,” her lawyer Carol Gustin, told the AP. “There was brute force against her, where she was obviously pregnant, it was not something that they could mistake.