By Joanna Putman
Police1
MARION COUNTY, Fla. — A sheriff is defending the actions of his deputy after his cruiser was stolen by a woman who drove into a truck head-on, killing herself and two other people, WESH reported.
The Marion County Sheriff’s Office released body camera footage from the Feb. 2 incident. The deputy arrived at the scene in response to a call about a woman attempting to take an older woman’s car keys, according to the report.
The woman, now identified as Kendra Boone, 33, can be seen in the footage approaching the cruiser’s passenger side window. The deputy rolls down the window to speak with her before telling her to meet him behind the cruiser.
The deputy then got out of the cruiser and walked toward the back of the vehicle. Boone was not there; instead, she climbed through the passenger window and was in the front seat of the cruiser, according to the report.
Video shows the deputy trying to stop Boone as she starts to drive away. He was able to get the door open but could not pull Boone out of the car before she sped off.
Other deputies responded and initiated a pursuit of the stolen cruiser, according to the report. About 20 minutes after the theft occurred, Boone lost control of the vehicle and hit a pickup truck head-on. Boone and the driver and passenger of the pickup truck were killed in the crash, and another person in the truck was sent to the hospital, according to the report.
“My deputy did absolutely nothing wrong…" Sheriff Billy Woods said in a news conference. “This individual decided to do what she did and ended with a result of killing two innocent individuals.”
Boone had several arrests prior to the incident, according to the report.
“If this person would have been in jail, I would not have two dead innocent people,” Woods said.