Dad chokes driver who tried to run Florida family off road in hate crime, feds say
After a driver tried forcing a family off the road, in what prosecutors say was a racially-motivated hate crime attack in Florida, the father fought back in self defense.
The roadway attack escalated at a red light where the man got out of his car, charged and tried punching the father, court documents show. But the incident ended when the dad, who is Black, got the man in a chokehold, according to officials.
What Jordan Patrick Leahy, 29, didn’t know was that the father is a martial artist who swiftly dodged his closed fist and kept Leahy restrained until Pinellas County deputies arrived, according to court documents.
A federal jury in Tampa found Leahy guilty of a hate crime on Aug. 24, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida. He faces up to 10 years in prison.
When deputies arrived on the scene at the time, Leahy made comments showing “his bias motive, including telling the officers that Black people need to be kept ‘in their areas,’” a news release from the attorney’s office says.
McClatchy News contacted attorneys listed for Leahy for comment on Aug. 25 and was awaiting a response.
The attack goes back to when the father was driving his 4-year-old daughter and girlfriend home from a family dinner in Seminole on Aug. 8, 2021, court documents show.
They were driving southward in the left lane on Starkey Road when Leahy “zoomed up” with his car directly next to them and pretended to shoot at the family using gun hand gestures while shouting racial slurs, according to court documents.
Then, Leahy swerved into the family’s lane in trying to run their car off the road before tailgating them as the father tried to get away, prosecutors say.
Leahy’s “pursuit” of the family went on for roughly a mile and half until he sideswiped their car, causing the cars’ mirrors to collide, and then he sped off down the road, according to court documents and the release.
The father wanted to take a picture of Leahy’s car to report the attack to police, so he followed him down Starkey Road until they both came to a red light, court documents state.
This is when prosecutors say Leahy got out of his car and tried assaulting the father while hurling more racial slurs at him.
“No one should be targeted, threatened, intimidated or assaulted because of their race,” U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg said in a statement.
“The defendant in this case acted upon his bigoted beliefs and put an entire family and others’ safety at risk,” Handberg added.
Leahy previously pleaded guilty to battery and DUI charges in connection to the incident, according to court documents.
He is facing a fine up to $250,000 as part of this sentence, according to the release.
Pinellas County is on Florida’s Gulf Coast, just west of Tampa.
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