1 Injured In Road-Rage Shooting, Suspect Arrested: Manatee Sheriff

PALMETTO, FL — A man faces charges after shooting multiple rounds into a vehicle during a road-rage incident in Palmetto on Sunday, injuring a passenger, according to a Manatee County Sheriff’s Office news release.

Vincent Steele, 50, of Riverview was charged with five counts of attempted murder.

A pick-up truck was heading north on Business U.S. 41 north in Palmetto, where it merges with U.S. 41, around 5:30 p.m. At that time, Steele, driving a car, tried to pass the victims’ truck in the merge lane, the sheriff’s office said.

Steele’s rear bumper hit the victims’ front bumper, causing him to lose control and spin off into the grassy shoulder in the 6900 block of U.S. 41.

The truck’s driver, a 57-year-old, stopped to check on Steele, who got out of his car, ran up to the truck’s passenger door and fired seven rounds into it.

The truck driver’s fiancée, a 36-year-old woman pregnant with twins, was hit multiple times by bullets in the lower torso, the sheriff’s office said.

After realizing his fiancée had been injured, the truck’s driver drove her to Manatee Memorial Hospital. Neither of the babies were hit by bullets.

The woman was later brought to Tampa General Hospital for surgery. Both the mother and the unborn babies are in stable condition Monday morning.

The driver and a 9-year-old girl in the truck were uninjured in the shooting.
Steele remained on the scene and spoke with deputies before being arrested.