A 23-year-old Florida woman, Ashanti Brown, was forcibly removed from a courtroom on Friday after she refused to leave the witness stand while shouting that she had shot her boyfriend in self-defence. Brown is charged with second-degree murder over the 30 August killing of 26-year-old Ian Pleasant, and the outburst occurred during a pretrial detention hearing at which she was ultimately denied bail. The judge said her inability to control her behaviour in court factored into his decision that she posed a risk to the community.

According to an arrest affidavit, Brown told officers Pleasant had hit her after she discovered he was cheating, and that she picked up a gun during a subsequent argument. Investigators said her account of the shooting changed and was inconsistent with physical evidence, since Pleasant was shot in the back rather than during a frontal struggle as she described. She did not call 911 and is accused of enlisting a friend to help dispose of evidence, though that alleged accomplice denied involvement. Brown, held at Escambia County Jail, also faces a tampering with evidence charge and is due back in court on 25 September.