Florida Drawbridge Tender Charged After Grandmother Falls to Death: ‘I Killed a Lady’

A Florida bridgetender has been arrested after she allegedly raised a drawbridge while a 79-year-old grandmother was still crossing with her bicycle, causing the woman to fall 50-60 feet to her death.

The West Palm Beach Police Department announced Artissua Lafaye Paulk, 43, of Greenacres, was arrested on March 17 after detectives obtained an arrest warrant two days earlier in connection to the February 6 incident. She faces a charge of manslaughter by culpable negligence. She is being held on a $20,000 bond, online inmate records show.

Police have not identified the victim due to Marsy’s Law, but her family’s attorney, Lance Ivey, has identified her as Carol Wright, 79, WPTV reported:

West Palm Beach police said Wright was walking east to west across the Royal Park Bridge — which connects the island of Palm Beach to West Palm Beach — on Feb. 6 when the bridge gates came down, an alarm sounded, and the deck suddenly started to go up.

Diego Su Pu was skateboarding across the bridge and came across Wright yelling and clinging to a railing, a probable cause warrant recently obtained by WPTV stated. He told authorities that he grabbed onto her right arm but could not hang on as she was too heavy, and he did not have the means to brace himself.

West Palm Beach Police Department Spokesman Mike Jachles said the grandmother plummeted 50-60 feet onto the concrete below and died, WTVT reported.

He noted that Paulk had a series of protocols to follow as a tender.

“That includes lowering of the gates for the vehicles, lowering of the gates for the pedestrians, and making several visual confirmations that there is nobody at either of the spans or past those gates,” Jachels said.

“The Florida Department of Transportation said in its report released Thursday that the bridgetender said she checked multiple times and did not see the woman before opening the span that afternoon,” the Associated Press said.

The arrest report notes that video evidence did not corroborate Paulk’s story, according to WPTV. 

“Video evidence contradicts Artissua Paulk’s statement that she walked out on onto the balcony and visually checked the bridge for vehicles or pedestrians prior to opening the bridge,” the document states. 

Detectives secured a search warrant for Paulk’s phone on February 15. She surrendered the device on February 17, and investigators “determined that Paulk was not using her phone at the time of the incident,” the West Palm Beach Police Department said.

In the arrest warrant, investigators said they uncovered deleted texts between Paulk and her supervisor, according to WTVT:

3:20 p.m. from supervisor to Paulk: “When they talk to you make [expletive] sure you tell them you walked outside on balcony 3 diff times to make sure no one was past gates n delete this msg after one time to make sure card [sic] stop 2nd time after gates lowered and 3rd time before you raised spans ok now delete this I know ur upset but u gotta tell them step by step how u do opening” – this message was deleted

Paulk responded that she did and deleted the message, the affidavit says.

According to the affidavit, the supervisor sent another now-deleted text at 3:59 p.m., instructing Paulk to write down what she did in steps in the lead up to learning someone fell. 

“I’m here with the police I killed a lady on the bridge,” she allegedly texted a friend at 3:44 p.m.

Paulk made her initial court appearance on Friday, WPTV said. If convicted, she faces up to 15 years in prison.