‘Light her up’: Watch dad’s profane tirade fueling his 12-year-old daughter to fight

Daddy-daughter time doesn’t usually go like this.

Police in Rio Rancho, New Mexico have charged a 33-year-old father with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and child abuse after video surfaced Thursday of him shouting at his daughter to “punch that b---h in her f-----g face” and to “f--- her up” during a fight, as first reported by KOB.

His daughter is 12 years old, and can be seen in the video wearing a pink shirt, while she and her opponent, 13, punch, wrestle and pull each other’s hair at a public park in broad daylight.

“I was like screaming, ‘get off me,’” the 13-year-old, whom KOB identified only by her first name, Grace, told the station.

Meanwhile, her dad Mark Pappas can be heard fueling his daughter’s basest instincts, laughing when she lands punches and kicks. At one point he even appears to pull Grace’s hair.

“Light her up,” he says as the two girls get off the ground after a brief scrum. “Why aren’t you fighting? Punch her in her f-----g face.”

Grace told KRQE, and later police, that Pappas got physical with her as well, splitting her lip, after bystanders stopped filming the fight.

“Why did he do that in the first place? What was going through his mind?” the victim asked the station. “He shouldn’t have hit me or say any of the things he did.”

Pappas was arrested Thursday by Rio Rancho police at Mesa Contenta Park, according to jail records. He was booked into the Sandoval County Jail at 6:30 p.m., but posted bond Friday afternoon.

“Lord only knows how your kid is supposed to model appropriate behavior when dad is modeling the most inappropriate behavior,” Phil Clark, a dad from Rio Rancho, told KRQE.

Pappas pleaded guilty in 2012 to the sale of a controlled substance, according to New Mexico court records.

This story was originally published August 4, 2018 at 11:09 AM.