A Massachusetts woman has been convicted for unleashing a swarm of bees on police officers who were attempting to serve eviction papers to an 80-year-old cancer patient. Rebecca Woods, a beekeeper, released the insects on deputies on October 12, 2022, in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, to protect her friend Alton King Jr.
Incident Details
Woods arrived at the scene in a truck carrying wooden beehives during an anti-eviction protest. Video footage obtained by MassLive shows a deputy exclaiming, 'Hey, hey, hey, she has a truck full of bees,' as another officer responds in disbelief. Woods then lifted the lid off a stack of beehives, later claiming in court that she intended both to prevent the eviction and to allow the bees to forage.
The 55-year-old put on a beekeeper suit to retrieve a second crate of bees before deputies tackled her to the ground and arrested her. During the struggle, additional boxes toppled over, releasing hundreds more bees that stung the officers, including one deputy who was stung on the face and head. After Woods was detained, an officer informed her that a colleague was allergic to bee stings. Woods reportedly replied, 'Oh, you're allergic? Good.'
Legal Outcome
A jury found Woods guilty of four counts of simple assault and battery and two counts of reckless assault. On April 17, she was sentenced to six months in jail, according to court records. Her lawyers argued that she was trying to prevent the eviction of her friend and former roommate, King Jr., who was undergoing cancer treatment at the time and had been fighting eviction from his $1.9 million mansion since 2018.
Aftermath and Reactions
Thousands of bees died during the arrest, as some hives were crushed. Honeybees also die after stinging. Robert Hoffman, chief deputy of the Civil Process Office, stated, 'Never in all my years of leading the Hampden County Sheriff’s Civil Process Division have I seen something like this.' The sheriff's office added, 'Our deputies face unpredictable and often dangerous situations in the course of their duties. They deserve to do their jobs safely – and today’s verdict reinforces that expectation.'
