Police: Road rage between men led to self-defense shooting; one charged in Palm Beach
A mid-afternoon road rage incident in a busy area of Palm Beach resulted in charges for a Wellington man who police say pointed a gun at another motorist who had two children in his car.
Police said the incident happened about 3:15 p.m. Thursday on South Ocean Boulevard near Worth Avenue.
According to an arrest report, a 37-year-old man with two children ages 9 and 10 in his Hyundai was waiting for a car two vehicles in front of him to parallel park in the 400 block of South Ocean Boulevard. When the man in the Hyundai honked, a person in a silver Honda sedan in front of him, which was not the car that was parking, gave the man the middle finger, the man told police.
The man told police that he grew impatient and drove around the silver Honda. As he passed with his windows rolled down, the man told the Honda's driver, "I was not honking at you," the police report said.
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That's when the man saw the driver of the silver Honda, a 29-year-old Wellington resident, reach down and pull out a silver and black handgun, police said. The Wellington man pointed the gun at the Hyundai, police added.
The Hyundai driver told police that he feared for his life and his children's lives, so he reached into his center console and pulled out his own gun, police said.
The Honda drove away, and the 37-year-old Hyundai driver followed while calling 911, police said.
While the man in the car with the two children did not initially tell police, officers later found a bullet hole in the silver Honda where the man in the Hyundai had shot out the Honda's driver side front vent window, the arrest report states.
The driver of the Honda would later tell police that everything happened so fast, he didn't know if he fired his gun.
Palm Beach police found the silver Honda near the intersection of Gulfstream and South County roads, with the Wellington man in the driver's seat and a 26-year-old woman sitting next to him. The man gave permission for police to search his car, and they found a Taurus 9 mm handgun, the arrest report states. While the gun was not loaded, a magazine was on the floor nearby, police said.
The woman told police that the Wellington man has anger management issues, and that when the 37-year-old man in the Hyundai honked at them, both she and the Wellington man raised their middle fingers out of their windows.
When the older man pulled alongside the Honda, the woman confirmed that the Wellington man raised his gun and pointed it toward the other car, police said. She told officers that they drove away when the front vent window suddenly shattered.
The two children, who were sitting in the backseat of the Hyundai, told police they were scared when the Wellington man pointed the gun at their car. One of the children said he thought the Wellington man fired his gun at them, because he saw a shell casing fly across his face, police said.
Investigators found that the 37-year-old Hyundai driver acted in self defense when he shot toward the Honda, because "he believed his life and the lives of his children were in danger" when the Wellington man pointed his gun at them, the arrest report states.
The Wellington man was charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He was being held at the Palm Beach County Jail on Friday morning on a $150,000 bond, according to jail records.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach police: Man arrested after waving gun at other driver, kids
