https://www.yahoo.com/gma/family-speaks-pregnant-woman-handcuffed-174100580.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall
Family speaks out after pregnant woman handcuffed at gunpoint during traffic stop in Florida
A Florida family is speaking out after a sheriff's deputy resigned after body camera showed him handcuffing a pregnant mother at gunpoint during a traffic stop while her children watched in fear.
The incident took place on Aug. 12 on a dark, rural road in Bradford County, Florida, northeast of Gainesville.
Ebony Washington told ABC News in an exclusive interview airing Monday that the situation got so tense that she asked her children to record the incident, adding that a speeding ticket "shouldn't warrant such extreme, drastic measures."
"She was treated as though she said she was a terrorist," Washington's husband, Pastor Washington, told ABC News.
"When they put the gun on her, I thought they were going to shoot her," Washington's daughter, Moriah Washington, 10, told ABC News. "Then, when they put the handcuffs on her, I thought they were going to take her to jail, and I got super sad and scared because I didn't know where me and my brother and my sister were going to go."
Body camera video released by the Bradford County Sheriff's Office shows sheriff's deputy Jacob Desue pulling over Washington as she drove along a dark, rural road. Washington said that she turned her hazard lights on, indicating she was planning on stopping, and drove about a mile to a well lit gas station where she felt safe to pull over.
As she pulled over, Desue screamed at Washington to get out of the vehicle while her children, including her 1-year-old, could be heard crying in the car.
"When all of this was happening, I was really scared for my mom, and I didn't know what they were going to do to her," Washington's daughter, Saige Washington, 17, told ABC News. "So, I called my dad because I wanted him to know that we were there just in case something did happen he could be there for us."
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