A 33-year-old woman from Florida was arrested on theft charges for handing the guns of her allegedly abusive husband over to police.
An officer arrested her and charged her with armed burglary and grand theft of a firearm.
They had a divorce hearing. Courtney Taylor Irby and her estranged husband got into an argument. She called 911, saying she had a fear for her life, police wrote in an arrest affidavit for her husband, Joseph Irby reports The Ledger.
According to an affidavit obtained by BuzzFeed News, Courtney goes to husband’s home to collect all of his firearms while he was in police custody and brought them into the Lakeland Police Department.
When an officer asked Courtney about how she found the guns, she told him, “Well, he was arrested yesterday for trying to run me over with his car, and he is now in jail. So I went to his apartment since he is in jail and I searched his apartment for the guns I knew he had and I took them.”
The officer, Brent Behrens, asked her again to confirm that she entered Joseph’s home without his permission. “So you are telling me you committed an armed burglary?” he said.
“Yes I am, but he wasn’t going to turn them in so I am doing it,” she then responded, according to Behrens.
Courtney told an officer of the Bartow Police Department that her husband was repeatedly “ramming” his car into hers, and eventually off the road. She said she was “in fear for her life.”
Behrens said he “determined [Courtney] committed the Act of Armed Burglary” when she entered in her husband’s home without his permission to retrieving the guns from her ex’s residence, and charged and booked her at Polk County Jail.
The affidavit stated that Behrens contacted Joseph following his arrest of his wife. The arresting officer called her ex, who was in custody, and her ex said he wanted to press charges.
Courtney’s story is drawn confused reactions from citizens and lawmakers. People are angry and called it unfair, the Lakeland Police Department chose to arrest Courtney without consideration of other critical factors for her actions.
After hearing all the details, Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat, come out in support of Courtney and her decision.
“I cannot stress enough the importance of keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, and empowering our survivors to ask for help, not arrest them,” she tweeted.
Eskamani told BuzzFeed News she sent a letter to the state’s Attorney General’s Office to request for not pursuing further charges against Courtney.
“Law enforcement needs to be better trained to provide support to domestic violence survivors, not incarcerate them or re-traumatize them,” Eskamani said.
“We continue to stress the importance of keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, and feel very confident that it would be impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms. Irby intended to steal anything.”