Deputy uses Taser on woman who fled East Naples bank

A Collier County sheriff's deputy said he used a Taser on a homeless woman Tuesday after she tried to cash a $300 forged check at an East Naples bank and fled.

Eleanor A. Colon, 24, faces charges of uttering a forged instrument, grand theft and resisting a law enforcement officer without violence.

The deputy reported that he arrived at the Regions Bank branch in the 4900 block of U.S. 41 E. about 2:45 p.m. after a bank employee called about a woman trying to cash what appeared to be a forged check.

The deputy said Colon told him she was trying to cash a check she had received for cleaning someone's house.

When the deputy was interviewing a bank teller, Colon fled the bank, and the deputy pursued her on foot.

He said he ordered her to stop several times, and she refused, running through a parking lot at Hammock Cove Plaza.

As the deputy closed in on Colon, he reported, he told her he was going to use his Taser. He did, and the Taser hit Colon's shoulder and back, causing her to fall instantly.

Medical crews took Colon to a Naples hospital for minor injuries.

Colon is a documented member of a street gang, the deputy reported.