William Hale: Florida man charged with attempted murder over road-rage shooting that injured both shooters’ daughters
NASSAU COUNTY, FLORIDA: A Florida man faces charges in a road-rage confrontation between two fathers that shot and wounded their daughters on a highway. William Joseph Hale, 35, faces one count of shooting into a vehicle, three counts of aggravated assault, and three counts of attempted second-degree murder, as per court records.
Hale is set to appear for his arraignment on April 20. Charges against the second man Frank Gilliard Allison, 43, who was arrested in the case were dropped under the Stand Your Ground law for self-defense, Jacksonville, reported Law and Crime.
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'Cat-and-mouse game'
In a news conference in October 2022 when the arrests were announced, Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper said, "Sometimes we see people acting stupid and doing dumb things out on the highway. They sometimes let their emotions get the best of them, and they don’t really think about the consequences of their actions or what could happen as a result of their stupidity."
On October 8, a witness dialed 911 to inform that Allison who drove a gray Nissan Murano with three people inside the vehicle and Hale who drove a black Dodge Ram with five occupants was driving in a strange manner, describing it as a "cat-and-mouse game," and believed something bad was about to happen. According to authorities, Allison and Hale were "speeding, driving erratically, and brake-checking each other."
'At some point during the encounter'
Leeper said, "At some point during the encounter, the driver of the Dodge Ram [Hale] got up alongside the Nissan and began shouting at the driver of the Nissan [Allison] to pull over. The right front passenger of the Nissan put her hand out the window and flipped the other vehicle off with her middle finger. The Nissan driver, Allison, rolled his window down to shout back at the other driver, and a plastic water bottle was thrown from the Dodge Ram into the Nissan."
"The driver of the Nissan [Allison] then grabbed his Sig Saur 45-caliber automatic handgun and fired one shot at the other truck before driving away at a high rate of speed," Leeper continued.
The bullet went straight into Dodge Ram's right rear passenger and hit the leg of Hale's five-year-old daughter. Hale then sped his vehicle right after the Nissan which was speeding away.
Sheriff said that after Hale caught up to the Nissan, he began shooting using a Glock 9mm semi-automatic handgun and the Nissan was at least struck with three bullets. One of the bullets hit Allison’s daughter, 14, in the back which led to her lungs collapsing. An NCSO patrol car then spotted both vehicles and pulled over. Both the girls who were injured were shifted to a local hospital.
Hale and Allison were taken into custody in the Nassau County Jail. "What is scarier than one crazy driver with a gun? Two crazy drivers with a gun. Thankfully, no one was killed in this incident. But it could have very easily turned out that way because two people were acting stupid and let their tempers get the best of them. There could have been two dead kids because of two stupid grown men," Leeper added, according to Law and Crime.