Meridian mom charged with trying to use Taser on police at Wal-Mart

Police had been searching for Danielle Krystine Davis for several hours after her ex-boyfriend reported she threatened him with a stun gun and walked off with their 4-year-old daughter Wednesday evening, Meridian Deputy Police Chief Tracy Basterrechea said.

Three detectives located Davis and her daughter about 11:30 p.m. at the Wal-Mart on Fairview Avenue in Meridian and approached them, Basterrechea said.

"We had information that she was possibly suicidal ... and had a knife with her," he said, "so one of the detectives grabbed the child to protect her."

Davis tried to use the stun gun on that detective and then attempted to stun the other two as they tried to take her into custody, Basterrechea said. No one was injured, he said, and Davis was taken to the Ada County Jail. The child was taken to her grandmother.

The chain of events began about five hours earlier and five miles away, in the parking lot of the Walgreens Pharmacy at Linder and McMillan roads. Davis' ex-boyfriend had arranged to meet Davis there so she could visit briefly with their daughter, who had been in the ex-boyfriend's custody, Basterrechea said. He brought a friend with him.

During the early evening meeting, Davis reportedly took her daughter by the hand and began to walk away with her. When the girl's father and his friend tried to stop Davis, "she produced a stun gun and threatened them by sparking it. They backed off, and she walked away with the child."

The men contacted Davis's family to try to locate her and the girl, then called police at 7:40 p.m., sparking an intensive search, he said. Police eventually located the pair thanks to "investigative techniques" Basterrechea declined to detail. It is uncertain how the mother and daughter got to Wal-Mart or where they went after they left the Walgreens parking lot, he said.

After Davis was taken into custody, officers found a folding knife in her pocket, he said.

Davis remained in the Ada County Jail early Thursday evening on $250,000 bond. She is scheduled for a preliminary hearing March 3 on three felony counts of assault or battery on an officer plus felony injury to a child and misdemeanor resisting and obstructing officers.

This story was originally published February 18, 2016 at 7:25 PM with the headline "Meridian mom charged with trying to use Taser on police at Wal-Mart."