A Winter Haven man remained hospitalized at Lakeland Regional Medical Center in stable condition Monday after shooting at the wrong Ledger newspaper delivery driver early Sunday, police said.
Brian Dickey II, 23, of Winter Haven will be booked into the Polk County Jail on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and discharging a firearm in public when he's released, police said.
Police said Ledger carriers Tiffany Simo and Douglas Romeo were delivering newspapers in the area of West Lake Cannon around 2:50 a.m. when a 1996 Oldsmobile driven by Dickey started following them.
When the carriers stopped to prepare a few more papers for delivery, police said, Dickey fired four rounds from a .380-caliber Bersa handgun and charged their truck, banging on the driver's side window with the gun and demanding they open the door.
"The girl who was driving rolled up her window," Romeo said. "Next thing I know, the person was outside the window banging on it, brandishing a weapon, and I drew mine and I kept telling him, 'You don't want to do this, you don't,' and he kept on brandishing his weapon," Romeo said.
Police said Romeo, who had a concealed weapons permit, grabbed his gun from a lockbox in the truck and fired through the window three times. Dickey was hit twice under his right collarbone and once on his right arm.
A neighbor heard the shots and called 911, and then the carriers called 911, police said.
Dickey was found at his house about two-tenths of a mile away and taken to the hospital.
After interviewing other residents at the home, an incident report said, officers determined Dickey had consumed a large amount of alcohol earlier in the evening. He got into an argument with his girlfriend, and she contacted Dickey's brother to come and intervene.
When Dickey's brother arrived, they argued and it escalated. The brother left the home, and Dickey got his gun and drove off to locate his brother, police said.
Dickey then followed a vehicle, which he thought was his brother's, onto West Lake Cannon Terrace. That vehicle turned out to be the truck of the newspaper carriers.
"I feel bad for the family that this happened to but we gave him every chance," Simo said. "He could have walked away at any given point. We had the dome light on because I had to see the route book. You could have easily seen nobody was in the truck but me and Dougie and a whole bunch of papers."
"This guy got much more than he bargained for," Winter Haven Police Chief Gary Hester said. "These victims feared for their lives and did exactly what they needed to do. This could have turned out so much worse than it did."