Couple was beating, choking each other in front of their kids. Teen rushed in to help.

A teenage girl risked her safety Saturday night when she tried to come between a couple who were hitting and strangling each other in a Burger King parking lot in front of their three small children, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.

The girl was able to convince the couple’s two older children to come with her to a motel property across the street while their parents continued to strike and choke each other, but not before being pushed by the man, deputies wrote in their arrest report.

William Rodriguez, 32, of Florida City, and Joanna Schmidt, 30, of Homestead, were both arrested on felony domestic battery and child neglect charges, as well as misdemeanor disorderly public intoxication.

They were booked into county jail on Plantation Key, where Rodriguez remained Monday afternoon on a $15,000 bond. Schmidt was released Sunday morning. Her bond information was not immediately available.

The girl, whom the Miami Herald/FLKeysNews.com is not naming because she is a minor and because neither she nor her parents could be reached for comment, was standing near the entrance of the Bayside Inn at mile marker 99.5 around 9 p.m. talking to a friend on her phone. She heard Schmidt and Rodriguez loudly arguing outside of Burger King, which is across a side street from the motel, according to Deputy Kyle Page’s report.

The girl told deputies she saw Rodriguez throw car keys at Schmidt and then choke her and shove her against their car. Schmidt then started choking and hitting Rodriguez, the girl and other witnesses said, according to Page’s report.

The girl “ran over to try diffuse the situation, but the male shoved her back and told her to leave,” Page wrote.

The two older children and an infant were inside the car. The girl said the older children were scared so she took them to the Bayside Inn and called 911. Her parents then arrived and helped her look after the children. The girl and her parents declined to press battery charges against Rodriguez. The girl was not injured, Page stated.

Staff at a nearby McDonald’s restaurant reported the couple had ordered food there earlier in the day, and the woman, whom Page identified as Schmidt, was so intoxicated that she had trouble putting her car in gear. The McDonald’s employee told police the children were in the car and there were opened beer bottles in the center console, according to Page’s report.

However, since the keys were out of the car when deputies arrived at Burger King, they could not file driving-under-the-influence charges, Page stated.

It was not immediately clear where the children were placed after deputies arrested the couple.

This story was originally published November 5, 2018 at 6:34 PM.