A Florida woman who claimed she was Harry Potter has been arrested in connection with a hit-and-run crash that killed a federal judge and injured a six-year-old boy, authorities said.
Natasia Snape, 28, was being held on suspicion of vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of a crash involving death and other crimes, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The crash occurred Friday morning in Delray Beach, north of Fort Lauderdale, after a car swerved around traffic and onto a sidewalk, striking a woman, Sandra Feuerstein, 75.
Feuerstein, a federal judge in New York’s Eastern District, was later pronounced dead at a hospital, the affidavit said.
The red, two-door sedan then struck a 6-year-old boy who was crossing the street, and the driver fled, the a document said. Snape was later found in a car that matched the description of the vehicle that struck Feuerstein and the boy, it said.
Snape was behind the wheel and appeared to be unconscious, according to the document.
She began fighting with emergency medical workers in the ambulance and said she was Harry Potter, the affidavit said. Authorities said they found a synthetic drug that causes excited delirium in her purse.
Snape denied that she had been involved in the crash, according to the document.
Court records show that Snape was appointed a public defender, though her lawyer could not be reached Sunday. She was being held in lieu of $20,000 bond, according to jail records.
Feuerstein was a former public school teacher in New York City who later went to law school, became a judge in New York state and was nominated to the federal bench by George W. Bush in 2003.
“Our thoughts are with her family at this time,” her alma matter, Cardozo School of Law, said Sunday.
