Woman hits deputy's car in Plant City funeral procession

PLANT CITY — A woman exiting a Plant City Dairy Queen cut through a soldier's funeral procession and struck a deputy's car, sending the deputy to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Saturday afternoon, Hillsborough County deputies assisted with the funeral procession of Sgt. David A. Croft Jr., who was killed in Iraq on Jan. 5 after insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device and small arms fire.

At 3:25 p.m., a pickup truck driven by Shannon Lima-Jones, 40, of Crystal Springs, pulled out of the Dairy Queen near the intersection of Reynolds and John Martin streets and cut into the funeral procession line, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

She then made a left turn and drove into the path of a car driven by Deputy Daryl Bowden, 55, the Sheriff's Office reported.

Bowden was airlifted to Tampa General Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. He is a 10-year veteran of the Sheriff's Office.

Lima-Jones was cited for failure to yield to a funeral procession, failure to yield right-of-way and driving without proof of insurance.