2 Florida men charged with attempted murder after 2 children shot during road rage incident

By Jamiel Lynch, CNN

Two men have been charged with attempted murder in Florida after two children were injured in a road rage shooting, Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper said during a news conference.

Just after 6 p.m. on Saturday, a Dodge Ram and a Nissan Murano were driving Northbound on US 1 from the Jacksonville area in what one witness described as a “cat and mouse game,” Leeper said.

Both vehicles were driving erratically, Leeper said, citing the witness’ account. Both vehicles were speeding and brake-checking each other, he added.

According to the authorities’ investigation, the driver of the Ram, who has been identified as William Hale, pulled beside the Murano and started shouting at the driver through the passenger window. A passenger in the Murano then flipped off Hale, Leeper said.

The Murano driver, identified by authorities as Frank Allison, rolled down his window to shout at Hale when a plastic water bottle was thrown into the Murano by someone from the Ram.

Allison, according to Leeper, then fired a shot at the Ram with a .45 caliber handgun and drove away.

CNN has not been able to reach either Allison or Hale nor their attorneys for comment.

“Mr. Allison said his goal of firing the shot was to ‘get out of the whole situation,'” arrest affidavits for both men say. Allison told police he thought he shot “the rear tire or truck bed area of the truck,” according to the documents.

Hale told officers as he was shouting he could hear the other driver shouting and then heard a “pow” at his back door, according to the affidavit.

“Mr. Hale said ‘after he shot, my daughter is screaming, it was an instant reaction,’ ” the affidavit says.

Hale’s 5-year-old daughter was hit in the leg, Leeper said.

Realizing his daughter had been shot, Hale allegedly fired at the back of the Murano, striking a 14-year-old passenger in the back and causing a collapsed lung, according to Leeper.

“Mr. Hale said he shot “everything that was in the (magazine)” of his Glock 43 [handgun] and thinks it was 7 or 8 rounds,” the affidavits continued.

When deputies pulled over the two vehicles, the men began fighting, Leeper said.

Both men were arrested and each charged with attempted murder, he said.

Nassau County Fire Rescue transported the children to hospitals with what Leeper described as non-life-threatening injuries.

“What is scarier than one crazy driver with a gun,” Leeper said while holding up the booking photos of the two men, “Two crazy drivers with a gun.”

“There could have been two dead kids because of two stupid grown men,” he added.

Both men have paid bail and been released from jail, the sheriff’s office said.

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