Shooting joyride leads to arrest

When a Pensacola nightclub denied an Indiana woman’s request to dance, she took her joyride to Navarre.

Around 6:45 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 15, Mary Patterson, 29, driven by her friend, Jennifer Rowe, also of Indiana, was caught on camera by Wal-Mart surveillance, posing topless on the counter in front of the Murphy’s gas station clerk.

According to a Santa Rosa Sheriff’s report, Rowe then drove Patterson around the parking lot while she fired several gun shots into the air.

The two then drove off to the parking lot of the Visitor’s Information Center on Navarre Parkway. There, Patterson was seen “messing with the ducks,” even attempting to steal one by putting it under her arm and walking to the car with it. She let the duck go before getting back in the car.

The girls circled the parking lot in the car while Patterson again fired gunshots into the air.

They drove by a man deputies identified as Gene Pratt, who told deputies that “the thinner girl threw up a peace sign using her fingers then flipped him off.”

Deputies later discovered Rowe and Patterson in the main parking lot of Navarre Beach.

Rowe told deputies that she urged her friend to go home, but that Patterson wanted to stay out instead.

Deputies found a gun below the passenger seat of Rowe’s car, where Patterson was sitting. Its magazine held 17 rounds and only two rounds of 9mm were left.

News reports of a shooting at the park lead concerned friends and family to call employees of the Navarre Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, located in the Visitor’s Center.

“I guess when the initial report came out, they didn’t state what time or when,” said Tracey Williams, president/CEO of the chamber. “My staff and I were receiving phone calls from family and loved ones concerned for our safety.”

Patterson was arrested on charges of improperly using a firearm, two counts of firing a weapon from the vehicle and disorderly intoxication.

After taking a breathalyzer test around 8 a.m., Patterson blew a .23 – well above the .08 legal limit.