A 22-year-old Ocala man was arrested recently after he was accused of trying to run over two men with his pickup truck.
Marion County sheriff’s deputies made contact with the victim in the 11800 block of N.W. 15th Street. He said he was walking home from a friend’s house when a blue Toyota pickup truck driven by Dartanyan Lee Gray attempted to hit him while he was in the roadway. The victim said he had to move out of the way or he would have been struck by the vehicle, a sheriff’s office report states.
The victim told deputies that Gray threw a screwdriver at him and attempted to strike him with his vehicle multiple times as the victim was fleeing to his residence.
The victim and his brother, who became involved after hearing the incident happening outside the residence, told deputies that a mail carrier had witnessed the incident, which she confirmed a short time later. While deputies were speaking with the mail carrier, a blue Toyota pickup matching the description of Gray’s truck drove past on N.W. 118th Terrace.
Deputies confirmed Gray was the driver and clocked the vehicle traveling at 39 mph in a 30-mph speed zone. They stopped the pickup and Gray told them he had been having issues with his speedometer, the report says.
When asked about the previous incident, Gray said the victim is mad at him and tried walking up to him with a knife as he was driving past. He also claimed the victim’s brother came after him with a baseball bat. After being read his rights, he said he didn’t try to intentionally run over the brothers and claimed they were walking in front of him, causing him to steer away, according to the report.
Gray was placed under arrest and transported to the Marion County Jail, where he was charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill and a probation violation for possession of a controlled substance. He was being held on $10,000 bond on the new charges and no bond on the previous charge and is due in court on June 22, jail records show.