Prosecutors have decided to drop charges against one of two men who shot each other’s daughters during a road-rage incident in Florida because he acted in self-defense – while the other driver faces three counts of attempted murder.
Frank Allison, 44, and William Hale, 36, opened fire at each other’s vehicles during an October gun battle in which Allison’s 14-year-old daughter and Hale’s 5-year-old daughter were hit.
The younger girl was struck in the leg and the teen was shot in the back, leaving her with a collapsed lung.
Both men were originally charged with attempted murder, but prosecutors have determined that Allison’s first shot was a justifiable use of force because Hale was the primary aggressor, WTLV reported.
Hale tried to run Allison — who was driving a Nissan Murano with two passengers — off Highway 1 near Calahan with his Dodge Ram pickup truck, which had four passengers, police said.
At one point, Hale drove alongside the Murano, rolled down his window and began shouting at Allison to pull over as Hale’s wife made an obscene gesture.
Allison rolled down his window to shout back when a plastic water bottle was thrown from the truck into the SUV, according to the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office in Florida.
A witness told police that Hale was the aggressor and that he tried to run Allison off the road.
The SUV driver fired a semiautomatic handgun at the Ram, hitting Hale’s daughter, who was sitting in the back seat, and then sped off, police said.
When Hale realized the girl was hit, he sped closer to the SUV and began firing several rounds from his semiautomatic — one of which struck the 14-year-old girl.
The state attorney’s office concluded that Allison acted in self-defense under the Stand Your Ground law because throwing an object at a moving vehicle is a felony offense.
Both drivers had concealed carry gun permits and no prior criminal records. They were both arrested Oct. 8 on charges of second-degree murder, but no formal charges were filed until March 30.
Hale faces three counts of attempted second-degree murder, three counts of aggravated assault and one count of shooting into a vehicle.
He drove his “vehicle in a reckless threatening or intimidating manner, which created a well-founded fear in Frank Allison that violence was imminent,” charging documents cited by WTLV state.
The suspect threw “a stone or other hard substance” – actually a water bottle — at Allison’s SUV, “which would produce the death or great bodily harm,” officials reportedly said.
Allison “reasonably believe[d] that using or threatening to use deadly force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm,” according to the documents.
Criminal defense attorney Janet Johnson told the news outlet: “Some people would say well water bottles shouldn’t be more aggravated than a gun but under the case law that the state cited a water bottle is considered a deadly missile.”