Florida DUI suspect heard on camera threatening black officer: 'My KKK friends will burn your family'
A Florida woman suspected of driving under the influence was heard on camera making racist threats toward a black police officer, according to body camera footage.
Police said the woman, identified as 53-year-old Julie Edwards, levied the threats last Friday night while being investigated for a DUI in Volusia County, Florida, about 50 miles northeast of Orlando, according to charging documents released this week.
Edwards allegedly threatened a Volusia County sheriff's deputy "with a visit from the KKK, a cross burning in his yard and harm to him and his family," the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said in a statement Tuesday. The woman is not seen in the footage, but can be heard making the threats.
While the arresting officer was completing paperwork, Edwards said she hoped to find the deputy, who is black, in a corner alone, according to body camera audio released by the sheriff's office.
"Keep it up boy," she said, according to the footage. "I will find you one day in a corner."
When the deputy asked her if she was "making a threat to a law enforcement officer," she responded, "I won't find you. My KKK people will.
"You f------ with the wrong white people," she said. "KKK's got your a-- boy."
She said the Ku Klux Klan would be burning crosses on his property and said black people should've never been let out of slavery, according to the body camera footage.
"My KKK friends will burn your family. Should never be here in the first place," she said.
She was charged with DUI, prior refusal to submit to testing, resisting an officer without violence and threats against a law enforcement officer, according to an arrest affidavit.
"Deputy King is of African-American descent and knows the history behind the KKK and the pain and torture they have caused and still cause to African-Americans today," the affidavit said. "Deputy King does not know Edwards and does not know her capabilities and takes the threat to be serious. Edwards was additionally charged with threats against a law enforcement officer, 1st offense."
Edwards was arrested on Feb. 8, and taken to the Volusia County Jail, but she was no longer in custody as of Thursday evening, court records show.
She is scheduled to appear in court on March 6. It's unclear if she has retained an attorney.
