A 71-year-old Florida woman brought a handgun into a police station, fired inside the lobby and walked back outside with the weapon before officers shot her, authorities said.
Linda Croteau went into the Port Orange Police Department lobby around 8:30 a.m. on a Thursday and aimed the weapon at employees, police told WPEC-TV.
The bullet went toward an evidence room where staff members were present, police said.
Inside the station, a man ordered Croteau to put the weapon down. Video showed her refusing by shaking her head “no.”
Still armed, Croteau walked out of the lobby and toward a parking lot where civilians and responding officers were gathered.
The man who first confronted her appeared to be relaying information to officers outside as she moved out of the building, police noted to WPEC.
Officers outside shouted repeated commands as Croteau continued toward them with the gun.
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“Drop it! Drop the gun! Drop it! Drop it! I’m gonna shoot you, drop the gun!” one officer yelled.
Gunfire from officers stopped once Croteau dropped the weapon, police told WPEC.
Video released by the department later showed Croteau on the ground while officers continued ordering her to surrender. She reached toward the gun, and officers shot again, according to WPEC.
Officers treated Croteau before she was taken to a hospital. She died later.
Port Orange police said afterward that they had learned of Croteau’s death and extended thoughts to “our officers, employees, Ms. Croteau’s family, and everyone else affected by the shooting.”
Police initially said every officer and employee had been accounted for and that the public was not in danger.
The department kept its lobby closed while the case was being reviewed.
Port Orange police released the video and audio from the shooting, saying they wanted transparency and to counter misinformation.
WPEC reported that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is handling the investigation.
The Port Orange shooting was the most dramatic of several recent cases involving elderly victims, elderly suspects or seniors targeted in major crimes.
In Hoover, Alabama, a 70-year-old woman was found unresponsive in a community swimming pool after what police described as signs of a struggle before her death.
The woman, whose name was not released, was discovered in the pool on Little Valley Road at 9:32 p.m. on September 3 after a 911 call.
First responders attempted to revive her, but she was declared dead at the scene.
Police said evidence at the pool pointed to a physical fight shortly before she died, and investigators are treating the case as a homicide.
Anastasia Tsefia Sudarsana, 30, was charged with one count of murder.
Detectives found Sudarsana nearby and said she knew the victim, though police have not released more about their relationship.
“The evidence showed a physical struggle occurred just before the victim’s death, which is being investigated as a homicide,” police said, according to ABC 33/40.
Police have not made a possible motive public. The woman’s cause and manner of death have also not been announced. The Jefferson County Coroner and Medical Examiner’s Office will release those findings when its work is complete.
Investigators sent evidence to the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office in Birmingham, and Sudarsana was moved to the Jefferson County Jail, where she is being held without bond.
Local reports said Sudarsana is an orphan from Ukraine who was adopted from a Kyiv orphanage by an American family when she was a little girl.
In Frisco, Texas, an elderly woman helped police turn a Social Security phone scam into a sting after a caller had already taken $30,000 from her.
The woman, who did not want to be publicly identified, told KDFW-TV that the caller claimed he was warning her about fraud involving her credit card.
“He comes on, and he says that he is the head of the fraud division of the Social Security Administration in Washington. And he’s very official, very smart, intelligent,” she said.
The scammer sent documents that made his story look official and told the woman he would keep her money safe.
She handed over $30,000 before he told her to pull another $22,000 from a bank account. A bank manager blocked the second withdrawal.
“The manager came out, and thank goodness for her, she said, ‘You’re getting scammed,’” the woman said.
After the woman made a report with Frisco police, officers turned the next pickup into a trap.
They gave her counterfeit money in a box for the courier. The courier accepted the box and tried to leave in a vehicle, but police arrested him.
The arrest helped investigators pursue an international ring accused of stealing from more than 200 senior citizens in Northern Texas and other states.
One accused organizer, 35-year-old Muzaamil Ahmed, was caught on September 4 while trying to leave the country through New York, according to the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors said Ahmed created shell corporations to launder money stolen from seniors, converting cash and gold into cryptocurrency before moving it overseas.
District Attorney Phil Sorrells said the network stole $250 million from victims.
He said one victim lost life savings to the scam and later died by suicide.
“If you are participating in this scam, know this: We are dismantling your network,” Sorrells said. “You will face justice in Tarrant County.”
Other defendants have been indicted, including store owners accused of melting down gold, people accused of routing stolen funds through cryptocurrency and people accused of opening bank accounts for money laundering.
Ahmed was booked into the Tarrant County Jail, and officials are working to extradite two other suspects.
“Law enforcement will never call you and tell you to buy gold or withdraw cash or purchase things like cryptocurrency for safety,” Sorrells warned. “If someone tells you to do that, hang up.”
