Florida woman steals deputy’s patrol car, crashes into oncoming traffic, killing herself and 2 others: video
A Florida woman stole a deputy sheriff’s patrol car and led authorities on a high-speed chase before crashing head-on with oncoming traffic — killing herself and two others on Thursday.
“This moron stole a police vehicle and killed two human beings,” Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods told reporters at a press conference Friday.
Deputies were responding to a “suspicious incident” involving a woman — later identified as Kendra Boone, 33 — reportedly trying to snatch an elderly woman’s keys at a shopping center in Silver Springs, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputy Chris Witte responded in his patrol SUV around 2 p.m. and instructed Boone, who approached his car, to head to the back of his vehicle as he briefly stepped out, the sheriff said.
But Boone instead jumped into the deputy’s vehicle — which was running with the key in the ignition — through the open passenger window and slid behind the wheel in a matter of seconds, bodycam video shows.
Witte yells at her to stop as she begins driving away in his patrol car. He chases after the car and opens the driver’s door, attempting to pull her out, but she hits the gas and speeds out of the shopping center parking lot, according to the shocking clip.
Boone fled in the stolen sheriff vehicle eastbound on East Highway 40 for several miles as more deputies arrived and chased after her, Woods said.
She was traveling “well over 100 miles per hour” and was “driving erratically” as she tried to evade deputies, the sheriff said.
Boone moved onto the right shoulder while attempting to pass a semi-truck on the highway during the chase. When she merged back onto the roadway, she lost control and crossed over the double yellow lines into oncoming traffic.
She collided head-on with a black pickup truck, Woods said.
Boone and the three occupants of the pickup were unresponsive when deputies reached the wreck.
Boone and two of the truck occupants — the 73-year-old male driver and a 72-year-old female passenger from Waterloo, South Carolina — were pronounced dead on the scene. The third person was rushed to a local hospital in critical condition, according to the sheriff’s office.
Woods said he and his deputies felt “sheer panic” when they learned that a patrol car had been stolen.
“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.”
The carjacker was recently released from prison and had a lengthy criminal history — which Woods dramatically illustrated at the press conference by holding up dozens of pieces of paper containing her apparent rap sheet.
Boone had 13 felony charges and nine misdemeanor charges on her record — of which she was convicted of two misdemeanors, according to the sheriff.
In addition to several arrests all around Florida, Boone was arrested three times in Marion County between 2020 and 2021.
She was convicted in Marion County on her last arrest and was sentenced in 2022 to two years.
Boone was also convicted in a separate class in Orange County — but instead of ordering her sentence to begin after she completed the two-year sentence she was handed in Marion County, a judge made the sentences concurrent, meaning she was given 30 months with credit for the time served in her other conviction, according to Woods.
If the sentence had been consecutive, Boone would still be serving time. She was released from prison in the last few weeks, 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.”
The outspoken sheriff made clear that he places zero blame on the deputy whose vehicle was stolen.
“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.
