Frantic 911 calls reveal the moments witnesses saw a woman with a knife in Deerfield Beach before deputies fatally shot her earlier this week. NBC6’s Niko Clemmons reports
Frantic 911 calls reveal the moments witnesses saw a woman with a knife in Deerfield Beach before deputies fatally shot her earlier this week.
Two people called after seeing the woman – who Broward deputies later identified as 60-year-old Debra Lobbins – waving the knife around Monday night in the area of South Federal Highway and Southeast 10th Street.
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WATCH HERE“She's like swinging around big knives,” one caller said. “I don't know if she's having a mental health crisis ... She just looks like she's going through something, I think she might need help.”
One caller told dispatch he saw the woman stabbing a black bag inside a shopping cart.
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“The fact that she's holding this knife out in public in plain view of everybody,” he said.
When deputies showed up, Lobbins was holding two 18-inch knives, investigators said. When one deputy walked over to Lobbins, she “moved toward him while swinging the knife overhead in an aggressive manner."
Detectives said the woman wasn't following the deputy's command to drop the knives. When he kept moving closer to him, the deputy shot and killed her, officials said.
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People who live nearby quickly reacted to the deadly shooting.
“Obviously, the police officers wear a bullet-proof vest, they have a taser, I don’t understand why they had to do what they did, instead of taser and get her the help she needs, I don’t understand that,” one man said.
Days later, a community is shaken and is still asking why.
“I'd get out of the car and take a look, but I'm not taking that chance, I got a family,” a 911 caller said.
The deputy who shot and killed the woman is on administrative duties while the FDLE is investigating.
