MARION COUNTY, Fla. – A woman in Florida stole a deputy’s patrol unit and led law enforcement personnel on a vehicle pursuit before crashing head-on with oncoming traffic. The horrific collision resulted in the death of two innocent victims and the suspect on Thursday. Another victim remains hospitalized in critical condition, officials said.
“This moron stole a police vehicle and killed two human beings,” Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods told reporters during a press conference Friday.
Marion County Sheriff’s Office provided an overview of the triple fatality in a press statement, which is included below:
On Thursday, February 1, 2024, at around 2:00 p.m., Marion County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) deputies responded to a report of a suspicious incident at the Forest Plaza, in the 15900 block of E Highway 40, Silver Springs. They were advised that a white female, later identified as Kendra Boone (DOB: 10/15/1990), attempted to take an elderly woman’s keys.
Boone was unsuccessful, but she attempted to gain access to the woman’s vehicle. When Deputy Witte arrived on scene, he made contact with Boone and advised her to go to the rear of his patrol vehicle.
Shortly after he exited his patrol vehicle, Boone entered the patrol vehicle through the passenger side and climbed into the driver’s seat. Deputy Witte immediately attempted to remove Boone from the patrol vehicle, but she fled at a high rate of speed. Deputy Barnes arrived as Boone fled in the vehicle, at which time a vehicle pursuit was initiated.
Boone fled eastbound on East Highway 40 for several miles before making a U-turn near the weigh station just west of Highway 19. While fleeing westbound, additional deputies positioned themselves ahead of the pursuit to deploy stop sticks.
However, before reaching the area of the stop stick deployment, Boone performed another U-turn and began to flee back eastbound on East Highway 40. Due to the fact that Boone was traveling well over 100 MPH and driving erratically during her attempt to evade deputies, Deputy Barnes lost visual contact with the stolen vehicle on numerous occasions.
Upon reaching the 26700 block of E Highway 40, Boone left the roadway and traveled onto the right shoulder in an attempt to pass a semi-truck. As she reentered the roadway at excessive speeds, she lost control of the stolen vehicle, entered into the oncoming lane of traffic, and collided with a black pickup truck.
As Deputy Barnes and other deputies arrived at the scene of the crash, they discovered that Boone and three occupants of the truck were unresponsive.
Boone and two occupants of the truck were pronounced deceased on scene and the third was transported to a local hospital in critical condition.
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The two truck occupants pronounced dead at the scene were a 73-year-old male driver and a 72-year-old female passenger from Waterloo, South Carolina, the New York Post reported.
The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) responded to conduct a fatal traffic collision investigation, which is ongoing.
Woods said he and his deputies felt “sheer panic” when they learned that a patrol unit had been taken.
“We know what’s in the vehicle. There’s a long rifle in there,” he said. “The moment she did that, she was a threat to human life — a threat for merely getting in that car. Think about that for a minute. What do citizens think when they see blue lights coming down the road? They think it’s a good person — not an a–hole like this.”
Boone had a lengthy criminal history and was recently released from prison. The sheriff illustrated her prior offenses during the press conference by holding up dozens of pieces of paper containing her rap sheet.
During a recent conviction, she was given a concurrent sentence in lieu of a consecutive sentence for the accrued criminal violations. If the sentence had been consecutive, she would still be serving time, according to local outlet 352 Today.
“If this person would have been in jail, I wouldn’t have two dead innocent people,” Woods said. “Her, I don’t give a crap about.”
Courtesy: MCSO
The outspoken sheriff made it clear that he places the blame for the horrific incident on the offender.
“My deputy did absolutely nothing wrong,” he said, adding that policies on leaving patrol vehicles running “doesn’t mean s–t” when asked by a reporter.
