As Hurricane Idalia swept through Florida on Wednesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis warned looters not to try to take advantage of the crisis, reminding them: “you loot, we shoot.”
“I’ve told all of our personnel at the state level to protect people’s property and we are not going to tolerate any looting in the aftermath of a natural disaster. It’s just ridiculous that you would try to do something like that on the heels of an almost Category Four hurricane hitting this community,” DeSantis said.
“I also want to remind potential looters what you’re walking into. People have a right to defend their community,” he continued. “In this part of Florida, you’ve got a lot of advocates of the Second Amendment. And I’ve seen signs in peoples’ yards in the past after these disasters and I would say probably here: You loot, we shoot.”
“You never know what’s behind that door if you go break into somebody’s house and you’re trying to loot, these are people who are able to defend themselves and their families. So i would not do it, we are going to hold you accountable from a law enforcement perspective at a minimum, and it could even be worse than that depending on what’s behind that door,” he added.
Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida just before 8 am ET, with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph.
Idalia has flooded streets, closed airports, caused widespread power outages, and killed multiple people.