© UnknownNaked: Inga Swanson was shot dead by two off-duty police officers on Saturday after she confronted them at a party in Hernando County, Florida
- Inga Swanson, 42, is said to have approached the off-duty officers acting strangely before returning a short while later 'armed, naked and irrational'
- Her boyfriend said gun she was carrying was antique that doesn't fire
- Two men report talking to naked Swanson 15 minutes before she was killed
Inga Swanson, 42, is said to have approached Tampa police officer William Mechler, 26, and Hernando County sheriff's detective Rocky Howard, 31, acting strangely before returning a short while later 'armed, naked and irrational'.
One or both of the officers then opened fire, killing Swanson, according to police. She died at the scene around 1.15pm.
Now two men have come forward saying they saw her naked in the woods just before she was shot, pulling over to ask if she was OK before taking pictures of her.
Al Eylward and Robert Collins spoke to Bay News 9.
Mr Collins said: 'She was literally walking down the road straight at us. So, we pulled up alongside of her, and at that point I looked out the window and I asked her, I said, "Are you alright?" And she said, "Yeah, but I'm a little bit confused".'
The men said they only took pictures because they did not think anyone would believe them without any evidence.
A short time later she walked inside a house holding a cross in her hands, they said.
'She held the cross up and made a circle like this and said, "Antichrist, Antichrist, this meeting is over",' Mr Eylward explained. 'And as she did that she stopped, turned around and walked back.
'At no time did any of us ever feel threatened and the only thing we ever saw in her hand was the cross,' he said.
Fifteen minutes later the 42-year-old was dead.
Mr Eylward said: 'This is a tragedy. It is, it really is. I had a friend that I was explaining this to and she asked me why I didn't call the cops right then and there, and as she said that it occurred to me that I should have. I should've called the cops.'
Swanson's boyfriend David Simpson today said she was extremely religious and though that 'the end times were near'.
He also said the gun that she was carrying was an antique that only holds one bullet and doesn't fire.
Hernando County Sheriff Al Neinhuis told MyFoxTampaBay that Swanson 'was just acting irrational... It was obvious being naked she was not in her right mind.'
Swanson who had apparently not been invited to what was a family gathering, left briefly and returned armed, police said.
Sherriff Neinhuis said: 'They asked her to leave and after a while she did leave and the detective called the Sheriff's Office to let us know there was a woman in the area who was acting irrational and naked.
'She came back with a weapon and confronted both the Tampa police officer and my sheriff's office detective. She came with a weapon and I would surmise that they felt their life was in danger.'
© Al Eylward and Robert CollinsCell phone pictures shows Swanson walking in a wooded area in Spring Hill. Al Eylward and Robert Collins said they ran into her shortly before she was shot on Saturday
Al Eylward and Robert Collins took photographs of her walking through a wooded area without any clothes on for fear that nobody would believe them without evidence.
They asked her if she was alright and Swanson replied that she was a 'little bit confused'.
Minutes later, the two men were looking at a home when they said Swanson walked with a cross in her hands.
Mr Eylward told BayNews9.com: 'She held the cross up and made a circle like this and said, "Antichrist, Antichrist, this meeting is over." And as she did that she stopped, turned around and walked back.
'At no time did any of us ever feel threatened and the only thing we ever saw in her hand was the cross.'
Both the police officers involved in Swanson's death have been placed on administrative leave as the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigates the shooting in the Spring Hill community.
Howard has served six years, Mechler four. Tampa police said Mechler was 'off duty and acting in the capacity of a private citizen.'
Lt Cinda Moore, a spokeswoman for the Hernando sheriff's office, said in an email late on Saturday that she could not comment on what the woman specifically said or did or whether she was told to drop the weapon.
The Hernando County sheriff's office does permit the carrying of service weapons when off-duty, she said.
The Tampa-area shooting comes two weeks after a naked, unarmed University of South Alabama freshman was fatally shot by a campus police officer after going to the police station there and pounding on the glass.
Police said 18-year-old Gil Collar had taken LSD and acted aggressively when an officer came outside carrying a gun.
The officer repeatedly backed away from the student before firing. An attorney for the student's family says Collar never touched the officer and the fatal shooting never should have happened.
The shooting led to protests by students.
Authorities have said a grand jury will review that shooting to determine whether charges should be filed.
Another repeat performance or simply a programming error?