Road-raging Mercedes driver shoots himself in the leg while waving rifle and handgun at Florida family
A man accidentally shot himself in the leg while waving two guns at a woman and her children during a Florida road rage incident.
Melissa Drake said a man driving a silver Mercedes in Fort Myers had been weaving in and out of lanes before attempting to pull into her lane, between the front of her car and another one about two feet ahead, reported WBBH-TV.
Drake, who had three teens riding with her, said she honked her horn and gestured, as if to ask the man what he was doing, and she said the man "brake-checked" her and forced her to slam on her own brakes.
“My son and I looked at each other right at the same time and said, ‘Is that a gun?’” Drake said.
Her 17-year-old son said the man pointed the handgun at him as his mother passed his car.
Drake called 911 and reported the incident, along with the man's license plate, and she said the man continued driving erratically -- even putting his vehicle into reverse at one point.
Then she said he brandished a military-style rifle with a scope attached.
"Who on this Earth would point a weapon at a child?" Drake said.
She followed the 911 dispatcher's advice and drove away from the man, and other witnesses picked up the story from there.
Gayle Sarceno first encountered the man after he leaped out of his Mercedes facing the wrong way at an intersection, and he began jumping up and down on one leg.
"He's spewing blood from his leg," Sarceno said. "He just drops, right there in the center lane."
She and another witness stopped to help the man, who told them his name was Alex and that he had shot himself in his car.
Sarceno said the man was in extreme pain and apparently went into shock, and he was taken by an ambulance to a nearby hospital.
Police said they found a handgun and large rifle in the car, along with a large amount of blood on the driver's side of the vehicle.
The gun-waving man's name has not been released and he has not been arrested.
Police said the man was still being treated at a hospital, but they released no additional details about his condition.
The case remains under investigation, but Drake said she was alarmed to learn the man had wounded himself.
"Oh my god, that gun was loaded," she said.
Drake, who was also riding with her daughter and the girl's friend, said she was angry about the man's threatening behavior.
“To mess with me is one thing, but to mess with my children -- you don’t mess with mama bear,” she said.
Watch this video report posted online by WBBH-TV:
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