Keys woman, 69, accused of firing shots at lobster divers
Angry about divers hunting spiny lobsters in a canal behind her house, the woman opened fire, officials say.
By Associated Press
Published August 1, 2004
KEY WEST - A 69-year-old woman who was upset about lobster divers in the canal behind her house in the Keys was arrested after she shot at them with a handgun, authorities said. Mary Alice Workman pointed the gun at a pontoon boat and opened fire as others warned divers participating in the state's annual two-day sport lobster hunt, witnesses told investigators. No one was injured.
Workman said she fired into the water and could see the bullet's downward path.
"That's my canal, and they have no business in there," Workman said. "They were taking the lobster, and we're not going to have no more lobsters."
Workman's neighbor, Tommy Morales, said he was cleaning his boat when she ran out of her house with a gun.
"She came out and she started screaming," Morales said. "All of a sudden, poof, poof, one or two shots, and that's when all the cops showed up. I ran inside with the kids."
Workman told police she had a .38-caliber handgun under her pillow. Officers confiscated the gun, a handheld flare gun and a BB gun.
She faces charges of aggravated assault and discharging a firearm in public. She smiled for her mug shot, spent the night in the Monroe County Jail and was released Friday.
"We've had similar incidents in the past. Not many, but some," said sheriff's spokeswoman Becky Herrin.
A new county ordinance bars Keys hunters from catching spiny lobsters within 300 feet of a residential shoreline outside the city of Key West. Workman lives within city boundaries.
Thousands of recreational divers descend on the Keys for the annual mini-season established by the state. The new rule was based on complaints from residents about an influx of rowdy hunters.
Workman said the two-day season brings in too many people.
"People come from out of town and everything. It's just a big scam for the hotels to make money, and we have enough traffic down here as it is," she said. "I'm going to fight it to the doggone end."
