A Florida Sheriff’s Department is defending the actions of a deputy after a woman stole his marked SUV, went on a high speed chase, and killed three, including herself, in a car crash.
“People need to be held accountable. My deputy did nothing wrong,” said Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods in a media briefing Friday.
Woods was referring to an incident on Thursday when 33-year-old Kendra Boone climbed through the window of a deputy’s SUV and raced away at speeds up to 100 mph.
About 20 minutes later, Boone lost control of the SUV and got into a head-on crash with a pickup truck. The car accident resulted in the death of an elderly couple in that vehicle. Boone also died. Another passenger in the truck was injured and was hospitalized in critical condition.
Reporters questioned Woods about whether the deputy acted in accordance with training and policy. He angrily denied that the deputy did anything wrong.
Woods said that the woman had a long criminal past and did not belong on the streets.
“If this person would have been in jail, I would not have two dead innocent people,” he added.
The couple that died were 73 years old and 72 years old from Waterloo, South Carolina.
He released video from the deputy’s body-camera in order to show just how quickly Boone was able to climb into the vehicle and drive away. He argued that the sole responsibility for the horrible deaths from the incident belonged to Boone and not to the deputy.
“This individual decided to do what she did and ended with a result of killing two innocent individuals,” he concluded.
Here’s the video of the incident:
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