By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
A Homeland Security agent who shot into an occupied vehicle following a road rage incident in September 2013 was acquitted Thursday by a Palm Beach County jury.
Angel Echevarria was charged with aggravated assault and shooting into an occupied vehicle, the Palm Beach Post reports.
Police said Echevarria was cut off by a Toyota Camry and crashed as a result. When the former solider and special agent with Federal Protective Service honked his horn, “the driver and passenger of the red Toyota ‘flicked’ Echevarria off by making several threatening gun-like hand gestures, left the scene and turned into the Town Center Mall in Boca Raton,” Echevarria attorney Bruce Lehr wrote in court records.
Echevarria confronted the driver, Alla Juma, while carrying a .40-caliber handgun.
Jump tried to flee and nearly struck Echevarria and his wife, prompting the agent to fire one shot into the Toyota, missing Juma, his brother and Juma’s 3-year-old son.
“It is also undisputed that a subsequent search of the red Toyota revealed the following contraband: a loaded handgun located underneath the driver’s seat and a bag containing marijuana located in the trunk,” attorney Sherleen Mendez wrote in the Dec. 4, 2015 court filing.
