A former federal prosecutor has been charged in a bizarre road rage incident on a Florida bridge earlier this week.
The Florida Highway Patrol said the incident snarled traffic on the Howard Frankland Bridge between Tampa and St. Petersburg for nearly three hours Tuesday morning, NBC News reported.
Patrick Douglas Scruggs, 39, has been charged with armed burglary, aggravated assault, and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
According to the highway patrol, the incident began at about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday when a 35-year-old man, “Driver 1,” was slumped over in his car in the southbound lane on the bridge. A second driver, 40-year-old Ahmed Gahaf (Driver 2), stopped in front of the first vehicle to see if the driver was OK.
Driver 1 “awoke and drove forward, colliding with Driver 2’s vehicle,” the highway patrol said. “Driver 1 reversed and attempted to driver around Driver 2’s vehicle” then “collided with Driver 3’s vehicle which was passing the incident.”
Driver 3 was later identified as Scruggs, who “stopped exited his vehicle, approached Driver 1, broke out a side window and began to stab Driver 1 multiple times with the pocket knife,” the highway patrol said.
Gahaf and his wife tried to intervene, but Scruggs turned and tried to stab them, police said. The couple “fled before being harmed.” A St. Petersburg police officer passed by the melee and arrested Scruggs, according to the highway patrol.
“It surprised me why he did this,” Gahaf said. “He said: ‘You with him? You two, you want to kill me?’ That’s when he came at me with the knife.”
Pinellas County Jail records say Scruggs was released on a $65,000 bond.
It wasn’t clear why Driver 1 was slumped over in his car, a spokesperson for the highway patrol said. Gahaf said the man’s hands appeared to be shaking when he regained consciousness.
A spokesperson for the US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida said that Scruggs was an assistant US attorney in the criminal division from September 9, 2012, until April 21 and no longer works for the Justice Department. The spokesperson provided no further details.
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[Featured image: 3 vehicles involved in the incident on the Howard Frankland Bridge/Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Inset: Patrick Douglas Scruggs/Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office]
