Florida NewsPolice BlotterPolitics

Watch: Guns Drawn, Florida Governor’s Gestapo Raid Home of Scientist Who Developed State’s COVID-19 Tracking System

Jeff Jones
Jeff Jones

Talahassee, FL – Former Florida Health Department Scientist Rebekah Jones was at home with her husband and her children when enforcement officers from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement entered her home with guns drawn, holding a search warrant.  FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen said the warrant was issued because they believe Jones had hacked into the state’s emergency alert system.

“Our investigation began last month following a complaint by the Florida Department of Health that a person illegally hacked into their emergency alert system. As part of our investigation, FDLE agents served a search warrant this morning at the Centerville Court residence where Ms. Jones lives after determining the home was the location that the unauthorized message was sent from.
Agents knocked and called Ms. Jones both announcing the search warrant and encouraging her to cooperate,” Swearingen said of the raid which was captured on video by Jones. “Ms. Jones refused to come to the door for 20 minutes and hung-up on agents.”
After gaining entry, agents entered the home with their guns drawn at Jones and her family memberss and seized several devices that will be forensically analyzed.
“At no time were weapons pointed at anyone in the home,” Swearingen said, despite video showing officers holding and point their guns inside the home. “Any evidence will be referred to the State Attorney for prosecution as appropriate.”
One officer is seen holding and pointing his gun in the direction of Jones’ husband who was upstairs when agents entered the home.
Jones said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis targeted her because of her online writings and the armed raid will not deter her from continuing reporting data to the public.  Jones said police took her children’s laptops, her cell phone, laptop and her work computers.  She claims DeSantis will use her phone and phone history to crack down on whistleblowers who were speaking to her about the governor’s handling of COVID-19.  She denied sending messages through the DOH system and said she has no access to the system.

Related News:   Drunk Driver Crashes Into Ditch in North Dover

“At 8:30 am this morning, the state police came into my house and took all my hardware and tech. They were serving a warrant on my computer after DOH filed a complaint. They pointed a gun in my face. They pointed guns at my kids,” Jones said.  “Imagine if the camera wasn’t recording…Imagine if I wasn’t white…Imagine if this were you because one day it might be.”

You appear to be using an ad blocker

Shore News Network is a free website that does not use paywalls or charge for access to original, breaking news content. In order to provide this free service, we rely on advertisements. Please support our journalism by disabling your ad blocker for this website.