A man is facing attempted murder and other charges in connection with a road-rage shooting on Interstate 95 in Broward County. Lazaro Diaz-Gongora, 31, was arrested Monday morning on two counts of attempted murder and one count of firing a deadly missile into a vehicle, according to a Florida Highway Patrol arrest report.
A man is facing attempted murder and other charges in connection with a road-rage shooting on Interstate 95 in Broward County.
Lazaro Diaz-Gongora, 31, was arrested Monday morning on two counts of attempted murder and one count of firing a deadly missile into a vehicle, according to a Florida Highway Patrol arrest report.
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The shooting happened around 10:20 p.m. Sunday in the northbound lanes of I-95 between Sunrise Boulevard and Oakland Park Boulevard near Pompano Beach.
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The victims reported that they had been on the highway when they were shot at multiple times and ended up with a bullet hole in the hood of their car.
They said they were driving when a white Kia Optima swerved in their direction, nearly crashing into them, the report said.
The Optima pulled in front of them and started driving slow, before a man leaned out of the passenger window and shot at them, the victims said.
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They said he shot at them around four times and "after each round he would pause and take aim to shoot and kill the driver," the report said.
The victims slowed and called 911, and exited the highway.
Authorities discovered the same car was also under investigation for similar crimes by Miami Beach Police, the report said.
Broward Sheriff's deputies found the car a short time later at a gas station, where Diaz-Gongora was taken into custody.
Diaz-Gongora's girlfriend told investigators that they had been at the beach drinking and were heading home when she almost crashed into another car, the report said.
She said Diaz-Gongora opened fire on the other car, and told investigators Diaz-Gongora "has anger issues and she was scared to call us in fear of what he would do," the report said.
Diaz-Gongora admitted to waving the gun at the victims but said he didn't realize it had a bullet in the chamber, the report said.
Diaz-Gongora was arrested and booked into jail, where he was being ehld without bond Monday, records showed. Attorney information wasn't available.
The shooting happened just hours before another shooting on I-95 in Miami-Dade left a driver injured.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the Broward shooting is at least the fifth highway shooting in the county this year. Miami-Dade has seen 10 highway shootings this year, FHP officials said.Officials said the shootings have been a balance of road rage and gang-related shootouts.
"We have worked many shootings as well where it has been two gangs going at it in the middle of the interstate and we have innocent victims in that crossfire that have been hurt," FHP Lt. Indiana Miranda said. "This is something random. You can’t plan this. I can’t say, 'let me put six troopers in this area from Monday through Friday' and see if it doesn’t happen anymore."
