William Hale was charged with three counts of attempted second-degree murder, three counts of aggravated assault and one count of shooting into a vehicle, online court records show. Hale is scheduled to be arraigned on April 20, records show.
Charges were dropped against a second man arrested in the case, records show. The charges were dropped under the Stand Your Ground law for self-defense, Jacksonville, Florida, station news4jax reported.
At some point, Hale got up alongside the Murano, rolled his passenger window down, and began shouting at the driver to pull over, the sheriff said.
The front passenger of the Murano put her arm out the passenger window and flipped her middle finger, the sheriff said.
A plastic water bottle was thrown from the Ram into the Murano.
The Murano driver then grabbed his 45-caliber semi-automatic handgun and fired one shot at Hale’s truck, police said. The bullet entered the pickup truck’s right-side rear passenger door and struck a 5-year-old girl in the right leg.
That driver, the sheriff said, said he fired his weapon “to get out of the whole situation.”
The sheriff said Hale heard a loud “Pow!” but didn’t think anything of it until everyone started freaking out in the back seat.
Then Hale realized his daughter was shot.
As the Murano was leaving, Hale sped up to get closer to the Murano and began firing several shots from his Glock 9 mm semi-automatic handgun out of the driver’s window. Hale fired seven or eight rounds, the sheriff said.
At least three bullets struck the Murano. One of the bullets went through the rear of the vehicle and hit a 14-year-old girl in the back, collapsing her lung.