Doing the Whiskey Tango with this sentence too:
“Officers say Barnes nearly hit several children.”
I’m guessing she threatened to smack 5-6 of the children if they didn’t sit down and shut up.
(Remember - this is TV journalism in a small market. I’ve seen high school dropouts that can write better than most of these goobers.)
I got the impression this was a childrens venue and she nearly hit several kids in the parking lot.