Marion County sheriff’s deputies arrested an 85-year-old man Wednesday night after a motorist claimed he was shot at during a road rage incident.
Christino Ugerio Aquino, of Ocala, is accused of following a motorist home and shooting at him in Marion Oaks on Wednesday evening. The victim had a dash camera in his vehicle that captured the entire incident, including the sounds of gunshots.
The victim said he was driving to his Marion Oaks home when he noticed a suspicious vehicle that kept flashing its high-beam headlights in his rear-view mirror. The vehicle, a white Mazda 4-door SUV, was being driven by Aquino and his wife was in the passenger seat, a sheriff’s office report states.
Aquino allegedly followed the victim back to his neighborhood and the man called 911 because he was afraid to go home. A short time later, he was able to get behind Aquino’s vehicle so he could begin giving the license tag number to dispatchers. But that’s when shots rang out and the motorist told the 911 operator that he was under fire, the report says, adding that the man wasn’t injured but his vehicle was struck by bullets on the front fender and just under the driver’s side door, the report says.
The victim fled the scene, made contact with Dep. Christian Guerra and gave him a copy of the dash camera footage. Guerra and Dep. Tim Marton then responded to Aquino’s residence, where he invited them in and “spontaneously uttered that he and his wife had just returned home.”
Aquino was taken into custody and refused to speak with deputies without an attorney present. His wife originally stated that “nothing had occurred.” But after she was advised of “evidence that was inconsistent with her statements,” she said that she and Aquino were driving home from a dentist’s office on Marion Oaks Boulevard when her husband started following the victim “to see what he wanted,” the report says.
She told deputies that she saw her husband holding his gun but she didn’t know if he had fired the weapon. And she said she didn’t know where Aquino had put the gun because “when they arrived home, she went into another room to cool down because she was frightened.”
The victim, who told deputies that he was in fear for his life, said he doesn’t know Aquino and has no idea why he would follow him home and shoot at him, the report says.
Aquino was transported to the Marion County Jail and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill. He was being held on $2,000 bond and is due in court on Feb. 19 at 9 a.m. to answer to the charges.