3 Dead in High-Speed Crash After Woman Steals Patrol Car and Hits Truck

A 33-year-old woman fled deputies in a stolen patrol car on Thursday and later collided with a vehicle on the highway

<p>Marion County Sheriff

Marion County Sheriff's Office

The scene of a high-speed crash in Florida that killed 3

Three people are dead and another person is severely injured after a woman stole a sheriff’s car and fled the scene, according to authorities.

On Thursday, deputies from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office in Silver Springs, Florida responded to a report of a woman trying to take an elderly woman’s keys, per a release from the sheriff's office shared on Facebook. Kendra Boone, 33, was “unsuccessful” in her attempt to steal the keys but attempted to “gain access to the woman’s vehicle” nonetheless, prompting a deputy to respond.

Deputy Witte arrived on the scene and told Boone to stand behind his patrol vehicle. After he exited the car, she entered it through the passenger side and climbed into the driver’s seat. Witte “immediately attempted to remove Boone from the patrol vehicle, but she fled at a high rate of speed,” the release continued.

<p>Marion County Sheriff's Office </p> Kendra Boone

Marion County Sheriff's Office

Kendra Boone

A “vehicle pursuit” began once Boone fled, and Deputy Barnes, who was also responding to the incident, “lost visual contact with the stolen vehicle on numerous occasions” as Boone made several U-turns, alternating between heading eastbound and westbound on the highway. She was “traveling well over 100 MPH and driving erratically during her attempt to evade deputies,” per authorities.

Boone eventually veered into the right shoulder of the highway to try to pass a semi-truck ahead of her, but as “she reentered the roadway at excessive speeds, she lost control of the stolen vehicle, entered into the oncoming lane of traffic and collided with a black pickup truck.”

The three passengers in the pickup truck were unresponsive, as was Boone, by the time Deputy Barnes and the other responding officers arrived at the scene of the crash, per authorities.

Boone and two of the passengers were pronounced dead on the scene, while the third passenger was transported to a local hospital in “critical condition.”

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An investigation into the fatal crash is ongoing, per the Florida Highway Patrol.

PEOPLE reached out to the Marion County Sheriff's Office for additional comment, but they did not immediately respond.

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