A 36-year-old man in Florida has been arrested after causing a string of road rage incidents. The Martin County Sheriff’s Office reports that the driver had not only chased a woman through a parking lot, but also sent a separate family vehicle off the road and into a fence. If that weren’t enough, he had a stolen dog in his car too.
Driver sent a family car spinning into a fence
Police arrested suspect Michael Jeffrey Spires from Fort Myers after he allegedly caused two dangerous road rage incidents, according to a post by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office on its official Facebook page on August 3.
Allegedly, at an unspecified date, Spires had first chased a female driver in the parking lot of a gas station and followed her onto the highway. The victim says that the man was flailing his arms and hands displaying gang signs as she attempted to flee. Spires tried to run her off the road, but she was able to get away safely.
Then over the weekend at around 7:30 p.m., Spires chased a North Carolina family that included a child off the road, sending their vehicle into a barbed-wire fence. Deputies say he used a PIT maneuver, which is typically used by law enforcement to bring fleeing vehicles to a halt, against the family car while it was moving down the Kanner Highway of I-95. The man had a stolen dog in his car at the time of the incident.
Spires was later arrested and charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and child abuse.
None of the victims were injured but they were “understandably terrified by the dangerous encounter.” There was no evidence that the victims caused the road rage incidents.
Meanwhile, deputies were able to safely remove the dog from the vehicle uninjured, and detectives learned that Spires had stolen the animal from a former lover. The dog has since been reunited with its owner.
