KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The mother of a University of Missouri-Kansas City student who drove into the Missouri River and drowned after a traffic stop said her daughter was "hammered" and shouldn't have been allowed to drive.
Extended coverage:
Police say body found inside vehicle pulled from Missouri River is missing woman Toni Anderson
Toni Anderson's parents thankful for answers after body found
Mother confirms Toni Anderson's body found inside car in Missouri River
Man who found Toni Anderson's car explains how it could have been missed
Friends hold prayer vigil for Toni Anderson, father hopeful with new KCPD lead
Liz Anderson is raising concerns after watching two videos of her 20-year-old daughter, Toni Anderson, the last time she was seen alive in the early morning hours of Jan. 15, The Kansas City Star reported.
Newly released QuikTrip surveillance video shows the Wichita, Kansas, woman driving the wrong way and sitting at an intersection for nearly 15 minutes before a North Kansas City police officer pulled up behind her. The officer can be heard asking the woman if she had been drinking or taking any medication in dashcam video that was released previously. At one point, the officer told her, "Huh? Not funny" after she apparently giggled.
Liz Anderson said she wishes the officer had arrested her daughter instead of telling her to go park and collect herself without administering a field sobriety test.
"I can't say too much, but shame on him," she said. "He could have saved my daughter's life. She was hammered. And going the wrong way. Any idiot could say, `You're messed up.' "
Toni Anderson's body was found two months later in her submerged vehicle near a Parkville, Missouri, boat ramp. A medical examiner said her hypothermia and drowning death was accidental and involved drug intoxication.
"I feel he was probably giving her a break," Liz Anderson said. "But that isn't what you need to do -- you need to serve and protect."
Several law enforcement experts who viewed the video of the traffic stop questioned the officer's decision to let Anderson go. Among them was Jim White, a public safety lecturer at Indiana University and former member of the Indiana State Police, who said instructing Toni Anderson to park "implies the officer believed there was impairment or mental confusion."
Responding to the criticism, North Kansas City police Maj. Kevin Freeman said the officer made a reasonable decision based on what he knew at the time.
"We do still stand by our officer," Freeman said. "Many factors go into a patrol officer's decisions: When to stop someone, where to pull them over, what they are going to do."
