A Florida man got more than be bargained for when he allegedly pulled a gun on another motorist on a busy Jacksonville street earlier this month.
As the Miami Herald reports, the man’s intended target had a gun of his own, which led to shots being fired in both directions in broad daylight on the afternoon of August 2.
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“Officers responded to a shooting at Atlantic Boulevard and … learned that a 25-year-old man, who was in the car with his mother and aunt, had been involved in a road rage incident with another driver following a near crash,” the sheriff’s office said.
“According to the complainant, the suspect pulled out a firearm and waved it at him. The victim then drew his own firearm, and the suspect began shooting. The victim returned fire. The victim was struck by gunfire and subsequently crashed his vehicle. Fortunately, his injuries were not life-threatening.”
Surveillance camera footage captured images of a silver Volkswagen sedan involved in the incident, leading to a license plate being captured, officials said.
The tag led to a home where the vehicle was found in the suspect’s driveway with “a bullet strike to the rear passenger door and a patch on the windshield covering apparent damage,” the sheriff’s office said.
According to the sheriff’s office, 28-year-old Tayler Strickland turned himself to authorities last week, and is now facing charges of attempted murder and “shooting deadly missiles“. The driver who pulled a gun and fired back, however, isn’t facing any charges since he was acting in self-defense.
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If Strickland really did pull a gun and fired shots at the second driver, he deserves the stiffest sentence he’s eligible to receive. He not only could have killed that motorist, but he put the victim’s mother and aunt at risk as well when he started banging away at his intended target.
Thankfully the victim in this case wasn’t seriously injured, but that sounds like it was more luck (or God’s will) than any sharpshooting on the part of the suspect. Based on the information provided by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, the suspect could just as easily be looking at three counts of murder for his reckless reaction to a near accident.
I’m glad that the second motorist was able to defend himself, but it’s ridiculous that this incident escalated to the point where he was shot over a “near” crash. If the suspect had simply driven off, maybe uttering an expletive or two under his breath or complaining to his family members about the number of idiots on the road these days, he would have quickly forgotten all about what had happened.
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Now he’ll never forget, because his reaction is likely to come with a lifetime of consequences; not only the years he’s liable to spend behind bars if convicted, but all of the baggage that comes with being a convicted felon. And for what? A momentary dopamine rush by pulling a gun to threaten someone over their bad driving? A fleeting feeling of power or control over a driver that ticked him off by pointing a gun at them?
We don’t need more gun control, but folks exercising more self-control along with their right to keep and bear arms would be a good thing.
Editor’s Note: We’re highlighting defensive gun uses every day on the Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co podcast.
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