One of the dads in Florida road rage that left both daughters shot has attempted murder charge dropped

Two Florida fathers — William Hale, 36, and Frank Allison, 44 — nearly killed each other’s daughters during a horrific road rage incident that occurred last October.

“Both men have different stories about how the confrontation started but both agree that it was fueled by road rage, that they were brake-checking each other, driving too fast and that Allison’s wife flipped off the Hales,” according to USA Today.

Their bad behavior eventually escalated.

“At some point during the encounter, the driver of the Dodge Ram [Hale] got up alongside the Nissan and began shouting at the driver of the Nissan [Allison] to pull over,” Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper announced at the time this happened.

“The right front passenger of the Nissan put her hand out the window and flipped the other vehicle off with her middle finger. The Nissan driver, Allison, rolled his window down to shout back at the other driver, and a plastic water bottle was thrown from the Dodge Ram into the Nissan,” he added.

In response, Allison grabbed his gun and fired, hitting Hale’s 5-year-old daughter in the leg.

“After he shot, my daughter is screaming. It was an instant reaction,” Hale later told the authorities.

Angered, Hale grabbed his own gun and emptied the Glock 43, hitting Allison’s 14-year-old daughter in the back and reportedly collapsing a lung.

“Shortly after the second child was shot, both vehicles spotted an NCSO patrol car and pulled over. The two men began arguing and then fought until the deputy broke up the scuffle,” Law & Crime reported.

“Fire and Rescue units responded to the scene and transported both girls to a local hospital with non-life-threatening wounds. Their fathers were both booked into the Nassau County Jail,” according to the law-themed news site.

This all happened back in October. There’s since been a jaw-dropping update. All the charges against Allison have been dropped on the grounds that he’d fired in self-defense and had been standing his ground.

“Florida courts have held that the throwing of a water bottle or similar object could form the basis of a forcible felony,” a deposition written by Assistant State Attorney Christopher Roth Huband on March 31 reportedly reads.

“The water bottle had liquid in it, and (Hale) threw it with malicious intent, clearly intending for it to enter the Allisons’ vehicle and possibly strike one of the occupants. As such, the water bottle would qualify as a deadly missile,” it continues.

Huband goes on in the deposition to say that Hale’s “aggressive driving pattern and the throwing of a water bottle placed the Allisons in fear of imminent death or great bodily harm and constitute the commission of forcible felonies.”

“William Hale’s actions – both independently and collectively – justify Frank Allison’s use of deadly force against William Hale,” the deposition states.

(Source: USA Today)

As for Hale, he’s reportedly been charged with three counts of attempted murder, three counts of aggravated assault and one count of “shooting or throwing deadly missiles.”

“There could’ve been two dead kids because of two stupid grown men,” Leeper said after their initial arrests in October.

This incident comes amid a rise in road rage incidents involving guns.

“The spike in gun violence during the height of the COVID pandemic in the United States is subsiding, with 2022 being the first year since the pandemic began that we saw fewer gun homicides than during the prior year. Yet one measure of gun violence continues to climb: road rage shooting deaths and injuries continue to pile up,” Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control group, reported last month.

“Everytown Research & Policy found that the number of road rage injuries and deaths involving guns has increased every year since 2018. In that year, at least 70 road rage shooting deaths occurred in the United States; in 2022, the number doubled to 141.”

In fact, one incident happened just this week — also in Florida, ironically enough.

“Officials were called Sunday for a report of a reckless driver on the Florida Turnpike around mile marker 191. Witnesses said the white sedan was going 100 mph and cutting in and out of lanes. Troopers pulled the vehicle over and detained Zion Zaire Waller,” local station WESH reported.

“While troopers were speaking with Waller, the driver of a pickup truck stopped and told officials Waller had fired a gunshot at his vehicle. “Upon inspecting the subject vehicle, a loaded rifle and handgun were recovered on the front passenger floorboard,” [Florida Highway Patrol] said,” the station added.

Waller was subsequently tossed into jail on three counts of attempted murder, reckless driving, shooting into an occupied vehicle, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, and possessing an unlicensed firearm.

Vivek Saxena

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