LULING, La. — Body camera video and video captured on cell phones shows a physical encounter between a St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Office deputy and the sister of a man deputies arrested in Luling Monday night.
The video shows the arrest of 26-year-old Keith Anthony Robinson, Jr. followed by the confrontation between Deputy Henry Sill and Robinson’s sister – 30-year-old MaryLee Breon Robinson.
The incident was a hot topic of conversation on social media and several people sent a copy of the cell phone video to WWL-TV.
The St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office sent out a news release on the arrests and the incident along with bodycam video. The sheriff’s office is conducting an administrative investigation into the incident.
According to authorities, deputies were in the 1300 block of Paul Frederick Street when they noticed Keith Robinson, for whom there was a felony probation warrant.
The video shows Deputy Sill approach Robinson asking to talk, but Robinson takes off running with Sill giving chase.
A short time later Robinson, who had been hit with a Taser, is on the ground and handcuffed.
A woman could be heard asking why they Tased him and as Robinson is brought to the sheriff’s office vehicle, that woman can be continuously heard talking to officers.
As Robinson is being put into the car, his sister says something to the affect of “you’re not going to handle him like that,” at which point Sill gives chase.
MaryLee Robinson turns around. At approximately 3:30 into the video, it shows Sill and MaryLee Robinson struggle. The home cell phone video appears to show Robinson tossed against a trailer. She goes to the ground and the deputy strikes her several times.
“She started swinging, so I struck her a few times because she’s swinging at me,” he said on the bodycam recording.
On that same video you later hear Sill tell someone else that “she came around my unit and tried to interfere.”
"They told her to get back. She didn't. We allowed her to record. We told her she could continue to record. We just needed her to get away. She refused. She kept coming up to the scene interfering," Chief Deputy Rodney Madere said. "When he did catch her she swung and punched him in the face. Our officer then was able to push her away to create distance when she fell to the ground our officer came in and she swung a second time."
While MaryLee Robinson can be heard saying she was coming around to that side of the car, she was several steps away from the unit when the deputy gave chase.
After that MaryLee Robinson continues to shout at the deputy about how the incident had been captured on video.
The family told WWL-TV’s Meg Farris that they felt the force was excessive and don’t think her actions of taping the incident should have resulted in that kind of force. They called the actions "abuse."
"It was scary because for a man to be beating a woman like that — and then in front of her kids and they crying. It's terrible," Robinson's relative Joshae Smith said.
Other relatives who witnessed the altercation said the deputy "bum rushed her" before punching her in the face several times.
The family called the NAACP, which is now running an independent investigation.
"The young lady may possibly have a concussion and she has not received adequate medical care," Jermeine Luckett, lead investigator with the NAACP said.
The sheriff’s office said MaryLee Robinson refused treatment at the scene.
She was charged with interfering with a law enforcement investigation, criminal damage to property, battery of a police officer, disturbing the peace and resisting an officer with force or violence.
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