Police: Texas woman assaults officer with 'Karate Kid crane kick'

AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas woman was arrested Monday after she gave a "Karate Kid crane kick" to a police officer in downtown Austin, according to her arrest affidavit.

According to the affidavit, two plainclothes officers had left the Municipal Court building in a police cruiser and stopped at a stop sign near Red River and 10th streets when a woman on the curb, later identified as 22-year-old Sarah Pierce, yelled to one of them, “What are you looking at?” and threw her hands up in the air. After the officer replied she was not looking at Pierce and rolled up the window, Pierce began hitting the cruiser’s window, the affidavit said.

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The officer, identified as B. Cumminskey, was wearing a badge and hip-holstered firearm. After stepping out of the car and identifying herself as an officer, Pierce “began to flail her arms at Cumminskey,” the affidavit said. Pierce then “kicked the officer in the stomach with what was described as a ‘Karate Kid crane kick,’” it said.

The affidavit notes that, unlike the iconic move from the 1984 movie, which starred Ralph Macchio as a bullied teenager and Pat Morita as a handyman martial arts master, Pierce did not have her arms raised.

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Cumminskey and the other officer subsequently subdued Pierce, who had continued to resist arrest, according to the affidavit. She was booked into the Travis County Jail on charges of assaulting a public servant and resisting arrest, the affidavit said.

Pierce said “she was just having a bad day and was upset that the officer was looking at her,” according to the affidavit, which added that Cumminskey’s white shirt had a footprint on the midsection.

Cox Media Group