"He took an oath to protect and serve, and this Sunday, he did not do his job," Evelyn Argueta said.
Argueta said her 5-year-old granddaughter, Marissa, had a seizure as the family shopped at the Walmart off of I-10 and Freeport Street Sunday afternoon.
"Her head kind of just flipped back in the basket and her eyes rolled back," she explained.
Argueta said her granddaughter had never previously experienced a seizure.
"That's why we were so scared," she explained.
She said the family held the urine-soaked little girl's head to prevent injury and turned her on her side so she would not choke on her vomit. Argueta said her daughter, Marissa's mother, called 911 but struggled to guide dispatchers to the store. She said dispatchers requested an exact address from her daughter, who was flustered and crying, while attempting to tend to Marissa.
Argueta said the family sought out a man in a Harris County Sheriff's Office deputy uniform working an off-duty security job at the store. She said they asked him for help after explaining the situation and requested that he call 911.
"The officer then told my son, 'No.' That's what you have your own phone for. Use your phone. What do you think? I can just pick up this walkie-talkie and get some help here for you?'"
With each plea, Argueta claimed that the deputy's responses grew more and more combative.
"He told me, 'I don't work for you, I work for Walmart,'" she said.
Argueta said strangers and Walmart employees jumped in to help Marissa, but the deputy did not acknowledge her.
"He failed," she said. "He sat on a chair and refused to move."
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Harris County Sheriff's Office told ABC13 the following:
"The Harris County Sheriff's Office initiated an internal affairs investigation into the circumstances surrounding this incident on Monday, Sept. 29 when we became aware of the social media post. The results of this investigation will be presented to the Sheriff's Administrative Disciplinary Committee to determine whether any policy violations occurred and to recommend disciplinary action, if warranted."
Argueta said that both HCSO and Walmart contacted her family on Monday after she posted about the incident on Facebook.
She said Marissa was taken via ambulance from Walmart to Texas Children's Hospital and is undergoing extensive testing to determine the cause of the seizure.
When asked if she felt the deputy involved should retain his job, Argueta replied, "No. I don't think so. I mean, if you won't get up off a chair to come and help, and we've told you a 5-year-old is outside on the ground having a seizure, what else are you gonna not do?"
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