Gulfport police responded to an early morning Mother’s Day call that a woman had driven her car into the water.
Amanda Hagood
A distressed woman drove her car into Boca Ciega Bay early Sunday morning and then held a knife to her own neck after being rescued from the water by law enforcement officers, according to Gulfport police.
The Gulfport Police Department said officers responded to 58th Street South and Shore Boulevard South after receiving “reports of a vehicle in the water and a female that was screaming.”
Witnesses said the woman may have driven into the water intentionally. Gulfport Fire Department personnel and police officers rescued the woman from the water.
“While walking to the ambulance, she broke away from rescue personnel and pulled a knife out from under her shirt, placing it to her own neck,” the Gulfport Police Department wrote in a statement.
The woman did not put the knife down and was unresponsive to officers commands, according to police
Officers then used a “rubber projectile” and detained the woman under the Baker Act, a Florida law that allows police or courts to take a person into custody for a mental health examination. Those holds can last up to 72 hours.
GPD says the woman sustained no major injuries and the vehicle was removed from Boca Ciega Bay.
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