‘Choked, Dragged and Hogtied’: Texas Cop Indicted After Video Shows Him Brutalizing College Student Who Spent Too Much Time in McDonald’s Restroom
A former Wichita Falls, Texas, police officer who dragged a 19-year-old, autistic Black college student out of a McDonald’s restaurant, then pressed down on her neck as she was pinned to the ground outside, was indicted this week for what police officials called “unreasonable, unnecessary and excessive” use of force.
In newly released police video, former officers Daniel Wilson and Douglas Gulley are seen arriving around 11 a.m. on Aug. 26, 2025, at a McDonald’s in downtown Wichita Falls, where a manager had called 911 about a young woman who was lingering too long in the restroom, and whom staff believed to be homeless.
Wilson’s body camera shows him approach Victoria Lang, 19, in the restroom, as she was looking into a mirror and adjusting her hair beneath a black bonnet. Asked a few times to identify herself, she ignored him, then refused to provide her name and birthdate, and said she had no ID.
Lang, a sophomore at Midwestern State University, had earlier that morning arrived on campus and tried to check into her dorm room, but it was not ready. So she went to McDonald’s to change clothes and freshen up.
A female McDonald’s employee visible in the video told police Lang had been there for two hours and that she wanted her to leave, but hesitated when Wilson asked her if she wanted Lang “barred” or trespassed from the building.
Wilson told Lang he would take her to jail if she didn’t identify herself, and Lang, appearing frustrated, held out her wrists as if inviting him to cuff her, and said, “Let’s take it there.”
Wilson then abruptly cuffed her hands behind her back, and refused her request to close her purse, as some of her belongings fell out of it. She tried zipping it up with her teeth as the officers were removing the bag from her shoulder.
Lang then sat on the ground and would not stand up.
Wilson and Gulley carried Lang facedown through the restaurant, holding her by her cuffed arms and legs, then put her on her stomach near the entrance.
“I didn’t do nothing,” Lang said, then sounded distressed as Wilson put his hand on her neck and pressed her face down into the concrete.
“My neck … This is illegal … You’re literally trying to choke me,” she said.
Wilson then grabbed Lang’s ankles and dragged her across the asphalt to his police car, where he twisted her legs into a “figure-four hold position” resembling a human pretzel, stuffed her into the backseat, where a seatbelt hooked onto her feet, and closed the door.
Neither officer had given Lang any verbal commands to move as they handled and arrested her, a police review of the incident later noted.
Lang was booked into the Wichita County Jail on charges of resisting arrest and interfering with public duties. She was released on bonds totaling $5,000 the following day. Court records show that the charge for interfering with public duties has since been dismissed, KAUZ reported.
The incident caused an uproar in the community as details about the forceful arrest trickled out and were made public by Crystal Washington, a community advocate representing Lang. She and other community activists called for the firing and arrest of the two officers.
On Jan. 12, then-Wichita Falls Chief of Police Manuel Borrego told reporters that both officers were under criminal investigation by the Texas Rangers.
“The arrest of Ms. Lang and her subsequent treatment is shocking to see,” he said, adding that when the state police investigation was complete, Wichita Falls police would release the body cam video.
“I know people will be just as angry as we were with what we witnessed,” Borrego said. “The conduct shown in this video represents a failure of the department to meet the standards we owe to the public.”
Borrego also revealed that Wilson had been fired from the Wichita Falls Police Department in November, and that Gulley had just resigned.
Wichita Falls Police Department records state that Wilson used “inappropriate force, carry methods, and body positioning” to secure Lang in the WFPD vehicle, calling his actions “excessive.”
The report also said that the officer’s bodycam footage showed that Lang was not combative, not yelling or screaming, and not creating a scene, contradicting what Wilson had reported on his car radio while transporting Lang to jail.
“That little girl did nothing wrong. I watched that baby get drug out of McDonald’s and the parking lot. I watched that baby get choked. I watched that baby get told by the police officer he was going to punch her! You’re telling her you’re going to punch her? That’s crazy,” District 2 City Councilman Robert Brooks told KFDX.
“It got worse once they got her to the car,” Brooks said. “What I saw inside that car reminds me of a cowboy roping a calf.”
Washington and Lang’s mother, Corya Lang, who is a deputy police chief at Southwestern Christian Community College in Terrell, Texas, began pushing the police department to release the bodycam video and to provide more details about the incident and the department’s internal review of it.
Lang, a “100-pound girl with a mental history … didn’t do anything at all” to warrant her arrest and the abusive treatment by police, Washington wrote in a post online. “She was choked, dragged and hogtied” for “doing her hair at McDonald’s.”
Washington and other local activists also called for Chief Borrego to be fired.
Amid that intense public pressure and criticism, Borrego resigned in February and was replaced by interim Chief of Police Mitch Bates.
The department announced it was conducting an internal review to beef up its standards related to training focused on appropriate responses to individuals experiencing mental health crises, establishing a crisis intervention team, enhancing de-escalation training, strengthening arrest and control techniques instruction, and “reinforcing the distinction between the authority to arrest and necessity to arrest.”
In April, the police department released the disciplinary file of Wilson, which showed that he was previously suspended in May 2025 after admitting to firing a weapon in the direction of another officer during an active shooter training.
His suspension letter also said that he was investigated in 2024 for engaging in a relationship with a confidential informant and using department-issued cellphone to send “inappropriate photographs of a sexual nature.”
Washington posted on social media in April that Wilson was not the only “aggressive” police officer on the force who had assaulted citizens and been “allowed to be rogue for multiple years.” She called for “more community oversight boards” because “the children in our community are scared of the police.”
On May 6, after announcing Wilson’s indictment on unspecified criminal charges, and releasing all of the video related to Lang’s arrest, Bates and other city officials released a joint statement about the incident and its aftermath.
“The actions aligned in this case are not reflective of the values of the Wichita Falls Police Department or the men and women who serve this community every day,” said Bates, who added the department is working to “strengthen trust with the community.”
“Today shows the legal system doing what is was designed to do,” said Mayor Tim Short. “Understandably people will have a wide range of emotions. As that process unfolds, this is a moment to recommit to each other as we build a better future for everyone in Wichita Falls.”
Washington said in a statement, “While this indictment represents a step towards accountability, conduct this abhorrent by a peace officer should never occur in any community. Those entrusted to protect and serve must be held to the highest standard, and accountability is not optional – it is necessary.”
While Taylor County Criminal District Attorney James Hicks has not yet announced the specific criminal charges included in the indictment against Wilson, Washington said in her statement that Wilson had been indicted on two counts of official oppression in connection with the arrest of Lang.
According to the Texas Penal Code, a law enforcement officer commits official oppression when they abuse their authority to mistreat, arrest or search someone unlawfully. It is generally classified as a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and fines up to $4,000. It can be considered an aggravated offense and upgraded to a second-degree felony if a peace officer causes bodily injury or threatens imminent bodily injury while committing official oppression.