(NewsNation) — Claiming she neglected her duty to “faithfully prosecute crime” in her jurisdiction, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has suspended Orange-Osceola County State Attorney Monique Worrell.

Worrell’s policies have allowed violent individuals to “escape the full consequences of their criminal conduct,” DeSantis, a Republican, said in a news release Wednesday. He said Article IV, Section 7 of the Florida Consitution gives him the authority to suspend a state officer.

The governor’s office started investigating Worrell after a 19-year-old was charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Spectrum News 13 reporter Dylan Lyons, Nathacha Augustin and 9-year-old T’yonna Major. After the shooting, DeSantis’ general counsel said in a letter to Worrell that she failed to hold the shooter, Keith Moses, accountable despite a criminal record and gang affiliation.

In Worrell’s place, DeSantis, who is running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, appointed former judge Andrew Bain.

According to a news release, Bain most recently served as an Orange County judge, and previously served as assistant state attorney in the 9th Circuit.

“It is my duty as Governor to ensure that the laws enacted by our duly elected Legislature are followed,” DeSantis said in a statement. “The people of Central Florida deserve to have a State Attorney who will seek justice in accordance with the law instead of allowing violent criminals to roam the streets and find new victims.” 

DeSantis, at a news conference Wednesday, pointed to a shooting over the weekend in Orlando where two police officers were wounded as an example of Worrell’s “dereliction of duty.”

The suspect who was accused of shooting the two officers on Friday was killed by an Orlando SWAT team Saturday morning while barricaded inside a hotel, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

The Fraternal Order of Police Orlando criticized Worrell, saying a “soft on crime” stance led to this incident. Worrell defended herself, telling reporters that the FOP was spreading “misinformation,” the Orlando Sentinel wrote.

“I don’t determine who gets out of jail. All I do is uphold the law,” she said.

At her own press conference Wednesday, Worrell revealed two of her deputy chief assistants were fired as well, because of what she said is “political gamesmanship” on the part of the governor, and not her policies or anything she has actually done. One of them, she said, has five children.

“This should not happen in a democracy,” Worrell said.

Saying that “justice does not prevail in the state of Florida at this time,” Worrell pledged to seek re-election as State Attorney, and that her legal team is prepared to fight this.

“If you know nothing else about me you know I am a fighter,” she said.

DeSantis, in his earlier remarks, said Worrell had a “pattern or practice” of avoiding minimum mandatory sentences on charges including gun crimes, drug trafficking offenses and child pornography, adding that she allowed juvenile offenders to avoid serious charges or incarceration.

“Prosecutors do have a certain amount of discretion about which cases to bring and which not,” DeSantis said. “But what this state attorney has done is abuse that discretion.”

However, Worrell maintained that crime is down in Orange County, citing data from police.

“While they are giving a false narrative that I failed to prosecute,” Worrell said, statistics show people are more protected under her leadership.

Implying that DeSantis’ timing of her suspension was to distract from issues surrounding a presidential campaign that’s faced layoffs and changes at the top, Worrell said the governor “needed to get back in the media in some positive way.”

“He replaced his campaign manager yesterday, and I guess today it’s my turn,” Worrell said.

Florida U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost decried Worrell’s suspension in a news release.

“State Attorney Worrell is a duly elected public servant who has done her job. The people of Orange County see this fraud suspension for what it is and continue to offer her our support as she fights this overreach of power,” Frost, calling DeSantis a “wanna-be dictator,” said. “We will not stand for this blatant abuse of power and fascism in our state.”

Another Florida prosecutor, Andrew Warren, was also suspended by DeSantis last year after he said he would not pursue criminal charges against seekers or providers of abortion or gender transition treatments.

Warren — a twice-elected, Democratic state attorney in Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa — sued the governor in federal court to get his job back. However, his reinstatement efforts have been unsuccessful.

Because of what happened to Warren, Worrell said she considers her suspension permanent.

“This is a political hit job,” she said.

The Orlando Sentinel reports that a flyer was passed around the courthouse Wednesday morning talking about the suspension and subsequent pause of court proceedings. An email from Lisa Munyon to the newspaper said this pause would last until 1:30 p.m.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.