This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

DES MOINES, Iowa — A Des Moines mother is in the Polk County Jail after police say she showed up drunk to a bar with her two-year-old daughter to bar.

Police say they responded to the area of Miss V’s Honky Tonk Island Bar at 1833 Hubbell Avenue just before 3:30 p.m. Wednesday after a call from a bartender about 25-year-old Mary Jane Carpenter.

Officials say Carpenter was intoxicated when she arrived at the bar with her child. Witness says the toddler was running around the bar and rolling on the dirty floor.

The bartender became upset Carpenter wasn’t supervising her child and a fellow bar patron tried talking to Carpenter about it.

“I said something, she got upset about it and when she went to leave she tripped and fell and landed on her child,” says witness Dave Jones.

Jones says Carpenter left the bar with the child and followed her outside while the bartender then called police.

“I noticed when she got up to 18th she left the baby in the stroller and took off running by herself, so I took off running. My first thought was that stroller’s going to roll into the street, so I got up there as quick as I could,” says Jones.

Jones stayed with the child until police arrived.

“Hats off to the person who called in and the citizen who followed and took the extra step to make sure the child was okay because obviously the mother was not looking out for the child’s well being,” says Sgt. Ryan Doty with the Des Moines Police Department.

Officers say Carpenter was clearly under the influence of alcohol and perhaps another substance.

A breath test administered on scene yielded a blood alcohol content of .183. A water bottle containing vodka was found in the child’s stroller.

Carpenter was allowed to comfort her child in the back of a police car while they waited for a family member to arrive to take care of the child. While in the police car Carpenter was able to get out of her handcuffs. When officers noticed they removed the child from the back seat.

“When it was time to remove child from mom, mom became agitated and upset and started to swing at the officer that was removing her child and inadvertently struck her own child in the face,” says Sgt. Doty.

Carpenter was taken to the ground and cuffed again.

Police say she is facing charges of child endangerment, assault on a police officer, and public intoxication.

41.596649 -93.585196