TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. (WFLA) – Tarpon Springs Police is still investigating a weekend road rage incident involving a group of motorcyclists.
It started with a large group of motorcycle riders preparing to pull off stunts, in traffic, on busy US 19 in Tarpon Springs. It ended with a teen rider getting shot.
Saturday night, along a stretch of US 19 north, a man in a Mercedes, with his 9-year-old son in the passenger seat, got a real scare.
Near the intersection of Klosterman Road and Disston Avenue, neighbors are used to hearing car horns, and cars revving up. But Saturday night was different.
“I was in my bedroom and we heard the motorcycle engines. And then there was like 3, I think, shots that you can hear. Didn’t know what it was. Thought it maybe the engine popping. But didn’t want to look outside just in case something was happening” said a neighbor who didn’t want to give her name.
The incident began at Beckett Way on the north side of the Anclote Bridge.
“Like a rolling roadblock. And letting their other motorcyclists do stunts and stuff up on 19,” explained Major Jeffrey Young with the Tarpon Springs Police Department.
8 On Your Side has documented the kinds of dangerous maneuvers some motorcyclist pull off in traffic. Sometimes they do it in packs.
“At the time the driver in the Mercedes tried to pass in the right lane, and that’s when all this began. They took exception to him trying to get around their stopping vehicles up there,” said Major Young.
They followed the driver a few miles south, ending up at the traffic light at Klosterman and Disston.
“At that point, about 15 to 20 motorcycles surrounded him and started hitting his vehicle, causing damage to it. At that point, he was in fear for his safety as well as the child in the car,” said Major Young.
So he fired 4 times, hitting a 17-year-old rider in the bicep.
“Kind of scared. You know. It’s my home and I can hear it from my house so it’s a little frightening,” said the neighbor.
Cops are checking for video and are asking for witnesses to step forward.
The teen motorcycle rider drove himself to Trinity Medical Center. Doctors treated him and he went home.
Tarpon Springs Police have made no arrests.
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