Fox News Flash top headlines for August 22
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A Florida deputy resigned after video showed him pulling a gun on a pregnant mother during a traffic stop.
Ebony Washington, who is four months pregnant, admitted that she was speeding at around 75 mph in a 55-mph hour zone with three other children in the car while they were on their way home to Jacksonville from Gainesville on Friday when she saw lights and sirens in her rearview mirror.
The woman claims she did not want to pull over in a poorly lit area, so she did not stop immediately and kept driving with her hazard lights on until she reached a spot where she felt more comfortable.
"Pull the vehicle over, or I’ll put you into the ground," Bradford County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Jason DeSue is heard saying in body-camera video over the speakers of his department vehicle.
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Bradford County sheriff's deputy Jacob DeSue pulls gun out during traffic stop with Ebony Washington. (Bradford County Sheriff’s Office )
Washington’s vehicle pulls into a gas station and stops before DeSue gets out with his gun drawn.
"If you make any movement, that’ll be your last mistake you’re gonna make," DeSue yells toward Washington’s vehicle, according to the video. "Do not move."
Washington is seen putting her hands out of her car, as DeSue points his gun at the woman's vehicle from his own.
The woman said the deputy told her to get out, but she responded that she had her seat belt on. Video shows she then gets out, and the deputy pulls her arm and places her in handcuffs.
"I’m trying to tell you the only reason I didn’t stop – I’m a very educated woman – Lord knows, I was only not [pulling over] because it’s dark out, and I have three kids with me. I’m pregnant and I did not want them to feel uncomfortable," Washington, seen wearing handcuffs, explains to the deputy.
Ebony Washington seen handcuffed during traffic stop with Bradford County sheriff's deputy Jacob DeSue. (Bradford County Sheriff’s Office )
Later on in the video, DeSue yells, "Just shut up about the why! Don’t care about the why!"
The video shows DeSue hand Washington a speeding ticket after she was taken out of handcuffs. She tells the deputy, "I just wanted to apologize again," to which he responds, "Apologize to yourself for not thinking."
The deputy has since resigned from the department amid media coverage of the incident.
"Had I have done any movement outside of what he told me to do that would’ve been the opportunity for him to pull the trigger," Washington said in an on-camera video with WJXT. "Him having power, the badge, the gun and the authority to do things, I think sometimes officers, like himself, they take advantage."
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"I am disturbed and disheartened how Jacob Desue handled the traffic stop on Ebony Washington. She responded in a manner that was totally understandable in this circumstance," Bradford County Sheriff Gordon Smith said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital. "Jacob Desue should have deescalated the situation but disappointingly was unable to respond in the appropriate manner. I have already accepted Jacob Desue’s resignation while continuing the internal investigation into his conduct. I want to reassure our community that I will hold the men and women of the Sheriff’s Office accountable to the highest standards of our profession."
The department said DeSue had been reprimanded several times in the past for insubordiantion and failure to comply with orders from a superior, previoulsy facing a two-week suspension for one of those instances.
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