A woman checked out of a Florida hotel and told staff that she was going on a God-directed shooting spree because of the solar eclipse, then shot two drivers on Interstate 10 before being arrested and charged with attempted murder Monday, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
Taylon Nichelle Celestine, 22, of Georgia, entered the highway 115 miles from the Alabama border in the Florida Panhandle and headed west. She was driving a purple Dodge Challenger with Georgia plates, officials said.
Within 5 miles, she fired into a passing car several times, spraying auto glass and grazing the driver in the arm, the department said in a statement.
She then fired at a second vehicle, hitting the driver in the neck. The driver was injured and treated at a hospital.
Florida Highway Patrol
Troopers stopped the woman after she drove for about 16 miles and found her with an AR-15 rifle and 9mm handgun. She was arrested and booked into the Holmes County jail. She was charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and improper discharge of a firearm.
The Florida Highway Patrol didn’t provide details about bail or Celestine’s legal representation.
Florida was not in the total solar eclipse’s path of totality, but millions watched the eclipse as it worked its way across a swath of the country.
While officials did not warn of any expected spike in crime during the eclipse, experts did caution that the rare event could cause an uptick in fatal car crashes.
The U.S. saw a temporary but substantial increase in deadly car crashes during North America’s previous total solar eclipse in 2017, researchers said in a letter published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. It is unclear if there were any fatal crashes related to the eclipse on Monday.