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Two men were arrested after two children were injured in a road rage shooting over the weekend that started in Duval County and stretched into Nassau County, authorities said.
William Joseph Hale, 35, and Frank Allison, 43, shot at each other’s vehicles with semi-automatic handguns during a high-speed “cat and mouse” chase late Saturday — and were finally busted when they got out and started brawling on the highway, according to cops.
Details of what happened
At a news conference on Monday morning, Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper said that the incident occurred around 6 p.m. Saturday on U.S. 1 near Callahan and stretched for several miles, according to News 6 partner WJXT.
He noted that multiple 911 calls were made.
“A guy in an SUV is driving reckless,” one 911 call can be heard saying in audio obtained by News4JAX. “I think they’re hauling — they are both hauling butt.”
According to a witness, Leeper said, there was a black Dodge Ram pickup truck with five occupants and a gray Nissan Murano sport utility vehicle with three occupants involved in the incident, which a witness described as a “cat-and-mouse game.”
William Joseph Hale was driving the Ram and Frank Gilliard Allison was driving the Murano north on U.S. 1 from the Jacksonville area, both “speeding, driving erratically and brake checking each other,” Leeper said.
At one point, Hale pulled his Dodge alongside the Nissan to start shouting — just for Allison’s wife, Jessica, to “flick him off with her middle finger.” In response, a water bottle was flung back at her.
“The driver of the Nissan, Allison, then grabbed his Sig Sauer .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun and fired one shot at the Dodge truck before driving away at an average speed,” Leeper said, saying the driver admitted firing the shot “to get out of the situation.”
“The bullet that Mr. Allison fired went into the right side rear passenger door and struck a 5-year-old girl in the right leg.”
Hale later told officers that “he heard a loud pop but thought nothing of it until everyone started freaking out in the back seat,” Leeper said.
“He then realized his daughter was shot,” the sheriff said.
Hale then “sped up” and “began firing several shots from his Glock 43 9mm semi-automatic handgun out of the driver window,” the sheriff said.
Hale later admitted that “he shot everything that was in the magazine — seven or eight rounds,” the sheriff said.
“At least three bullets struck the Nissan. One of the bullets went through the rear of the vehicle and struck a 14-year-old girl in the back,” he said.
Both men’s wives called 911 during the wild battle and agreed to pull over to meet a deputy, court docs show.
Instead, both men “got out and started arguing and fighting. The deputy had to break up the fight,” Leeper said.
Both men were arrested and charged with second-degree attempted murder, the sheriff said. They were each released hours later on $150,000 bond, court records show.
