A Texas cop dragged an autistic college student from a McDonald’s bathroom, then pinned her to the ground and put his hand on her neck

Victoria Lang was 19 and a sophomore at Midwestern State University when she went to a McDonald’s in downtown Wichita Falls to change and freshen up after her dorm room wasn’t ready yet. A manager called police on Aug. 26, 2025, after Lang, who is autistic, spent an extended stretch in the restroom, and staff assumed she was homeless, according to Atlanta Black Star.

Then-officer Daniel Wilson pressed her several times to identify herself on his body camera; she ignored him at first, then refused to give her name or birthdate and said she had no ID. When Wilson said he’d take her to jail if she wouldn’t identify herself, Lang held out her wrists and said, “Let’s take it there.” He cuffed her and refused her request to close her purse; as items began falling out, she tried zipping it shut with her teeth while officers removed the bag from her shoulder.

She then sat down on the floor and wouldn’t stand. Wilson and fellow officer Douglas Gulley carried her face-down through the restaurant by her cuffed limbs and set her on the ground near the entrance. “I didn’t do nothing,” Lang said, then, as Wilson pressed her face into the concrete, “My neck … This is illegal … You’re literally trying to choke me.”

Then it got worse in the parking lot

He then dragged her by the ankles to the patrol car and folded her legs into what a later department report called a “figure-four hold” before placing her in the backseat. Neither officer gave her a verbal command to move at any point, that same review found. Lang was booked on charges of resisting arrest and interfering with public duties; the second charge has since been dismissed.

Wichita Falls police records described Wilson’s actions as “excessive,” noting his bodycam showed Lang wasn’t combative or creating a scene, contradicting what he’d radioed while driving her to jail. Then-Chief Manuel Borrego called the footage “shocking” and said it reflected “a failure of the department to meet the standards we owe to the public.” He resigned amid public pressure; Wilson was fired, and Gulley resigned.

Wilson has now been indicted on two counts of official oppression, according to community advocate Crystal Washington, who has represented Lang’s family. Under the Texas Penal Code, § 39.03, a public servant commits official oppression by abusing their authority to unlawfully arrest, detain or mistreat someone. It’s a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine, but it becomes a second-degree felony if the officer causes or threatens bodily injury while doing it.

A civil claim would likely run through a different standard entirely. Federal courts evaluate police use-of-force claims under the Fourth Amendment’s “objective reasonableness” test, set by the Supreme Court in Graham v. Connor, which asks whether an officer’s actions were reasonable given the threat posed and whether the person was resisting, judged from the scene, not with hindsight.

That case has an odd echo here: Graham himself was a diabetic having a medical episode that officers mistook for criminal behavior, not unlike how Lang’s disability-related unresponsiveness in the restroom became the basis for treating her as uncooperative rather than in need of accommodation. Whether Wilson’s conduct meets that standard, or whether Lang could separately argue the department failed to reasonably accommodate her disability during the encounter, hasn’t been tested in court.