Officer Toni Mullins, 32, ran after the man, who was taken away in handcuffs with a broken kneecap.
Mullins was walking back to her car after an evening out with her siblings when a man tried to pry her purse away from her. She told him she was a cop and that he should stop, but he kept tugging until the purse strap broke, allowing him to run off with the handbag.
The officer also ran and caught up with the man, whom she found crouched between vehicles looking through her purse. They struggled and she beat him with her shoes until she successfully pulled his arm behind his back. But she released her grasp while she tried to dial 911 on her cell phone. The man again ran and fell off a 12-foot wall as he tried to get away, breaking his kneecap in the fall. Local police then arrived.