MINNEOLA, Fla. — Dashboard camera video shows the Tuesday arrest of a Florida woman who brandished a pitchfork and whip outside a Publix supermarket.
A video released by the Florida Highway Patrol shows a trooper pulling up in front of the Publix on North Hancock Road in Clermont and coming to a stop just as a woman walks out in front of the vehicle.
The woman can be seen standing in the rain, pointing the black whip at the trooper’s vehicle. She briefly walks away, then reappears and points a pitchfork at the trooper. She stops in front of the trooper’s vehicle and appears to strike a pose, brandishing the whip and pitchfork.
The trooper exited the vehicle to arrest her, and returns with her in handcuffs. She can be heard telling another person, “I forgive you for saying that.”
As the trooper loads her into the vehicle, she asks, “Don’t you feel real bad?”
“You seem like a good man, you’re trying to do your job, because this woman’s mentally ill, right,” she says. The trooper asks, “Are you OK?” She says, “I’m great.” When he asks if she’s taken anything today, she says “yes.”
She tells the trooper she forgives him, then shouts let them come, and Baker Act me, a reference to The Florida Mental Health Act of 1971, or Baker Act, which allows the involuntary institutionalization and assessment of individuals who appear to be mentally impaired and a danger to themselves or others.
Police say she stabbed a minivan with the pitchfork, causing damage. She was allegedly trying to sell teddy bears outside the supermarket, per reports.
According to a booking report from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, she was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a third-degree felony. She was booked into the Lake County Jail.
TMX contributed to this story.