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Pregnant woman hurt in road rage shooting
A pregnant woman and her unborn twins are hospitalized after a road rage shooting in Manatee County. The suspect, Vincent Steele, faces charges.
PALMETTO, Fla. - New court records are shedding more light on a road rage incident that resulted in a woman pregnant with twins being shot three times in Palmetto over the weekend.
Vincent Steele, 50, was arrested earlier this week after authorities say he fired several gunshots into a car that he crashed into, injuring a 36-year-old pregnant woman sitting in the passenger seat.
READ: Florida man shot woman pregnant with twins multiple times over Palmetto crash: MCSO
According to Steele's affidavit, the woman is 23 weeks pregnant with twins, and as of the writing of the affidavit, the twins' heartbeats are normal.
The woman told detectives she was driving with her fiancée and daughter to look at a house somewhere in Manatee County when they got into a crash.
A small red sedan quickly tried to merge in front of their truck but didn't leave enough space to merge, colliding with the pickup truck the woman was driving in.
The woman told detectives after she gained her composure and checked in on her daughter in the backseat, she saw the driver of the sedan exit his vehicle with a handgun and quickly approach their car.
He then aimed the handgun directly at the passenger side door where she was sitting and fired multiple rounds into it, three of which struck the pregnant woman.
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According to Steele's testimony, he had been pulling on the door trying to ask the driver why he hit him when he saw the driver reach for what he believed to be the handle of a pistol. He said he approached the truck in an ‘irate’ state but hadn't chambered a round in his pistol until he saw what he thought was a gun.
The affidavit says once he saw the possible pistol handle, ‘he retreats, racks a round into his pistol, and starts shooting at the car.’ It claimed the pickup truck had tints but at a close distance, those tints wouldn't prevent Steele from seeing ‘an obviously pregnant woman’ in the passenger seat.
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Steele faces five counts of attempted murder charges. According to the affidavit, he has a prior conviction in Hillsborough County for reckless driving less than two years ago.
The woman's fiancee and daughter were uninjured in the shooting and a family friend told FOX 13 she had been in and out of surgery at Tampa General Hospital soon after the shooting.
At Steele's first court appearance, his daughter, Adora, told the judge he was on his way back from picking up his sick wife from work when he got into the crash.
He is expected to have a pre-trial hearing on Friday morning.