OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. – Investigators have arrested a man in South Florida who they say shot two people in a road rage incident in Poinciana on Tuesday.
Osceola County Sheriff Chris Blackmon said Josue Gabriel Astacio, 30, was arrested by the Miami-Dade County Robbery Intervention Unit in Hialeah on Wednesday.
The incident happened around 2 p.m. Tuesday when a driver and his passenger were shot during a road rage confrontation on Cypress Parkway, the sheriff’s office said.
Deputies responded around 4 p.m. to HCA Florida Poinciana Medical Center, where the victims had driven themselves for treatment. The victims’ vehicle, a black Ford Expedition, had its back window shot out and the front window damaged.
According to the sheriff’s office, the victims were a 40-year-old man driving the Ford Expedition and his 39-year-old cousin. The two were traveling on Cypress Parkway when they encountered another vehicle, a Mercedes GLE, involved in the road rage incident, deputies said.
Both vehicles stopped and the shooter, who deputies identified as Astacio, approached the Ford Expedition, yelling at the driver, according to the sheriff’s office. The shooter then threatened the driver with a gun, deputies said.
The driver got back into the vehicle and continued driving before turning onto Marigold Avenue, according to the sheriff’s office. At that point, the shooter fired three times at the Ford Expedition, grazing the driver’s head and striking the passenger in the face, deputies said.
The driver was treated at the hospital and released, while his cousin was airlifted to Osceola Regional Medical Center.
Astacio is facing charges of attempted murder, discharging a firearm from a vehicle and shooting into an occupied vehicle. The sheriff’s office is expected to extradite him to Osceola County.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office.