POLK COUNTY, Fla. – A 64-year-old man was arrested Sunday after pulling a gun and pointing it toward another vehicle that had a 3-year-old child inside, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
The road rage incident happened around 11:40 a.m. near Mary Holland Park in Bartow.
The sheriff’s office said the victims, including the child, were traveling south on Harden Boulevard near Pipkin Road when Stephen Phillips, of Mulberry, “brake checked” their vehicle and was driving erratically.
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Both cars came to a stop side-by-side at a traffic light and Phillips pulled out a gun, pointing it toward the victims, deputies said. The sheriff’s office said the victims reported Phillips made “repeated racial slurs” and that they feared for their lives.
Phillips denied pulling a gun but later admitted to pulling it, though he told deputies he did not point it at the victims’ vehicle.
“The victims provided detectives a photo of the encounter, which showed Phillips holding up a .22 caliber Phoenix Arms HP firearm,” the sheriff’s office said in a release.
Phillips was arrested and faces charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and improper exhibition of a firearm. The sheriff’s office said Phillips is an optician in Lakeland.