A Kansas City woman says she suffered a concussion, memory loss, a swollen eye and a bruised face when several off-duty Kansas City police officers wrestled her to the ground during an arrest at the Power & Light District last week.

Daysheion Renee Ponds, 25, was with a cousin and his girlfriend, watching the Jan. 28 AFC Championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens about 8 p.m. when she had an argument with a bartender about her bill and police were summoned.

Cellphone video recorded by a bystander shows several Kansas City Police Department officers pulling Ponds, who is Black, toward a security office as she is handcuffed and screaming. In the video, an officer is seen grappling with Ponds and forcing her head and face into the ground while she calls for help. A second officer places his knee on the back of Ponds’ leg to prevent her from moving.

In the video, one of the officers is heard yelling at Ponds: “If you act like an animal, we’re going to treat you like an animal.”

Another officer curses at and threatens to arrest the person recording the video.

The video shows Pond being taken out of view into the security office as the person recording the video loudly protests and bangs on the door.

In an interview Tuesday, Ponds said the treatment she received was unfair.

“I’m 5’2” and I’m under 150 pounds,” Ponds said. “I was no threat, I couldn’t have hurt them in any way and the whole time that they were hitting on me and beating me. I was in handcuffs, so I couldn’t have done anything extreme to them.

“They did things to me that they didn’t have to and it definitely traumatized me,” Ponds said. “It’s something that I’ll never forget. It’s stuff that I stay up all night thinking about.”

Asked about the arrest and the events seen on the video, Capt. Jacob Becchina, a Police Department spokesman, said officers and security guards were called to the disturbance in Power & Light’s PBR Big Sky Bar.

As officers arrested Ponds, other people became involved and walked along with security and police while they escorted the woman to the security office.

Becchina said taking the arrested person to the security office was “usual protocol.”

Bystanders can’t legally be restricted from filming police, Becchina said, but the law does not allow the person recording to get so close they interfere with the police.

“The officer advises the person they are free to film but that they need to back up,” Becchina said. “Officers are well within their right to advise a citizen to cease their actions if they are creating an interference.”

Other details of the arrest, Becchina said, “are not a public record at this time due to the ongoing investigation.”

The video is the latest of several bystander-recorded videos over the years showing violent arrests of Black people by Kansas City police. In May 2019, two officers were recorded slamming the head of a transgender woman against a concrete sidewalk.

The following year, an officer was recorded twisting the arm of a pregnant woman while putting his knee on her back, with her belly on the ground. In 2022, an officer was captured on video forcing a man’s face onto the ground outside of a gas station.

The Rev. Vernon Howard Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Kansas City, said he was appalled at the way the officers treated Ponds. He said it was another example of police mistreatment of Black people.

“We continue to be the victims of police brutality,” Howard said. “Our chronic victimization by law enforcement in this city has been so prolonged and terminal and infinite.

“Any delay in bringing justice to Black people equates to denial. These situations may not be urgent for law enforcement. But they are urgent for us and we still have a crisis and that crisis is demonstrated in this video,” Howard said.

An arrest at Power & Light

Ponds said she rarely goes out and prefers to stay home and spend time with family.

Her father, Isaac C. Ponds Sr., was shot to death after an altercation with other patrons at a nightclub in September 2001 in south Kansas City.

But on this occasion she was persuaded to go out with a cousin and his girlfriend to watch the game. It was only the second time Ponds had visited the Power & Light District, she said.

“I’m just not the type of person who goes out a lot,” she said. “I’m not a paranoid person. There’s always a lot going on in the nightlife.”

On the night of the game, Ponds and her relatives met another group and watched the first 90 minutes of the game in the Pizza Bar. Then they went out to the outdoor section of the entertainment area to watch the game on the giant outdoor screens.

Once outside, Ponds said she realized that the battery in her cellphone had died. She wasn’t able to buy any drinks using the debit card on her phone.

She had an argument with a bartender who said she did not pay for an alcoholic drink.

Ponds said she was charged for the drink that she did not order or receive. She also said she recalled giving the bartender her debit card and that it was declined when he tried to charge her.

She said some details of the incident remain unclear because she suffered memory loss as a result of her injuries.

The bartender summoned help from security guards and off-duty officers, who arrested Ponds.

Video of Kansas City police officers

The 2 minute and 24 second video recorded by a bystander shows police officers pinning Ponds to the ground and handcuffing her.

Her hair is pulled and becomes entangled with the handcuffs.

One officer wrestles Ponds to the ground. A second officer moves in and forces Ponds to lie face down.

“Turn her over,” one officer is heard saying to another.

Ponds screams “help,” as the officers unsuccessfully attempt to untangle her hair from the handcuffs.

An officer grabs Ponds by the back of her pants and places his knee on the back of Ponds’ leg to prevent her from moving. The officers struggle to get Ponds to her feet.

At one point a police officer whose name tag shows the name Ambrose yells at the bystander recording the arrest.

“Get back or you’re going to jail. F—— record all you want, I’m not playing this game,” he says.

The video shows that officer walk away as other officers take Ponds to a nearby security room. From inside the room, the video records Ponds screaming. The bystander pounds on the door for the officers to open.

“She’s screaming. She’s screaming, too,” the man recording the arrest is heard saying.

An officer opens the door to the security room and Ponds can be seen lying face down on the floor, yelling.

“Yo! Why is she screaming? Let me come in and see,” the man said.

Another officer looks outside and immediately slams the door shut as the video ends.

Lauren Bonds, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, said the man recording the incident appears to have done so from a safe distance and did not appear to be interfering.

Based on the video, she said, the man was no closer than other bystanders.

“Officer Ambrose’s threats and aggressive behavior likely constituted a First Amendment violation,” Bonds said.

As for the arrest, Bonds said the holds that the officers used, particularly grabbing the woman’s head, did not appear to be standard procedure for trying to gain compliance of a person who is handcuffed and on the ground.

“The force being used seemed uncontrolled and unnecessary given two officers were present and the woman is relatively small in stature,” she said.

Finally, Bonds said, the department should investigate the officer who referred to the woman as an “animal.”

“It is unprofessional at best and raises serious concerns about racial bias,” Bonds said.

Waking up in a jail cell

As a result of the arrest, Ponds received municipal citations for disorderly conduct, larceny and assault.

The city charges allege Ponds yelled and screamed obscenities at the manager inside a crowded bar and jumped over the bar to grab her credit card back.

The charges accuse Ponds of intentionally stealing a drink, kicking a police officer on the left side of his head, and biting him on his inner thigh.

Ponds said she doesn’t remember being placed in a police holding cell and is unsure how she got there. She recalled being hysterical.

“I was crying and screaming because I didn’t know where I was,” she said. “My face was hurting, it was swollen. I was spitting out blood.”

The handcuffs officers placed on her wrists and ankles were too tight and left her bruised, swollen and with scratches, she said.

Ponds’ mother and another relative paid her bond to have her released from police custody. But the events of the evening left her traumatized, she said.

Ponds said she has hired an attorney. She is scheduled to appear in court on the municipal charges March 28.

“I know that not every cop is a bad cop. But I also do know that there are cops who use their power to hurt other people,” she said.

“I want everyone to be safe and honestly like this is definitely an eye opener for me. It is definitely traumatizing,” Ponds said. “I’m scared to even drive and have a cop behind me because I don’t know what’s gonna happen.”