Florida woman throws fake snake at deputy after chase

INDIANTOWN, Fla. (WPBF) - A Florida woman is accused of throwing a rubber snake at a deputy, one of several charges she now faces after a bizarre chase.

“Yeah. I think one of the takeaways from this whole thing is that there’s nothing routine about a routine traffic stop,” Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said.

Snyder said that routine traffic stop happened at about 10:15 a.m. Wednesday. A deputy on a motorcycle tried to pull over a pickup truck when another pickup truck hit the gas hard. So, the deputy chased that truck.

Snyder said the driver slammed on her brakes, forcing the deputy to move to the right side of the vehicle.

“Once he stopped, she intentionally swerved over and tried to hit his bike. He actually had jump off to not get hit,” he said.

Snyder said the driver then took off again and tried to hit three sheriff’s cruisers. The chase ended after five miles, when the driver allegedly rammed another truck, flipping it, injuring the three people inside.

It was then that things took a weird turn.

“She came out of the vehicle and instead of surrendering, she threw what looked like a real snake at our deputy,” Snyder said.

Investigators said she threw a rubber snake at them, but the deputy very much thought it was real.

According to the sheriff, she threw it just moments after the deputy had put away his gun.

“Fortunately for her, instead of re-engaging with the firearm, he goes for a Taser and ends it right there,” Snyder said. “If she had thrown that snake, when the gun was out, we may be talking about police officer-involved shooting right now.”

The woman’s name has not been released but charges include aggravated assault and aggravated battery of a law enforcement officer.

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