INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Portland Man Reportedly Shoots 8-Year-Old Girl In Road Rage Incident

By Tito Ojo-Medubi
Published on: 22:56 PST, Dec 25, 2016

Another man has been arrested for allegedly shooting a child in a road rage incident.

Joshua Eric Constantine pleaded not guilty after being charged for first-degree assault, among other charges, according to Portland Patch News.

According to the girl’s mother, she was driving east on Interstate 84 in Portland, when she noticed a driver weaving recklessly through traffic and forcing other drivers off the road. The woman said she almost crashed her car in the process and she tried to get close to the person driving the minivan so that her front passenger could get the license plate information.

That was the moment when the driver pulled out a gun and opened fire. An officer said it blew a hole in the bottom half of the woman’s rear passenger door. The single shot hit an 8-year-old child in the foot. Another child at the back but was not injured.

Officers had responded to calls of a shooting and learned that the little girl was wounded after being shot out of a moving vehicle. Medical respondents who arrived treated the girl at the scene, adding that the injury was not a life-threatening one, even though she was later taken to hospital.

The suspect was described as a white unshaven Hispanic man, between 30 and 35 years old. He was said to be on the chubby side and wearing a hat. His minivan was said to be blue. Police are not sure if he was the only one in the vehicle. An All Points Bulletin ensured that some officers stopped a van matching the suspect vehicle and detained the driver, who turned out to be Joshua Eric Constantine.

The front passenger said he recognized Joshua as the shooter when he saw his picture in the circulated report. Constantine has revealed that he did not know the girl he was being accused of shooting. He admitted that he had been diagnosed with depression and was using marijuana and drinking alcohol every day. He is being held at the Multnomah County Detention Center with bail condition set at $282,500. He is facing single counts of reckless driving, second-degree assault and twin counts of an illegal use of a weapon.

The shooting took place on his 32nd birthday.

This is not the first time that a child would be involved in a road rage incident. According to the Inquisitr, a child this time proved to be the fatal victim of a road rage in Little Rock, Arkansas. The 3-year-old boy, Acen King, was on a shopping trip with his grandmother when a driver opened fire on his grandmother’s car because she was too slow at a stop sign.

Gary Holmes turned himself over to authorities after his parents begged him to surrender. The 33-year-old pleaded not guilty Friday to the introductory charges of committing a terroristic act and capital murder. The tragic event occurred on a rainy Saturday.

Holmes, who was with his girlfriend in a black Chevrolet Impala, said he had complained about the vehicle following him closely from behind. The 33-year-old then pulled over to let the car pass and when the vehicle reached a stop sign, came down and shot into the vehicle. His girlfriend said when he got back into his vehicle, Holmes revealed that the person had it coming. Both said they were not aware someone had died until the next day.

The 3-year-old boy was struck in the neck by a bullet. His grandmother, Kim King-Macon, had no idea that her grandson had been fatally shot and drove several miles arriving at a shopping center, before raising an alarm. When she turned around and saw Acen King slumped forward in his seat, she called 911.

The boy later died at a hospital.

Acen King was the second child to die in Little Rock in a matter of weeks. Only last month, a 2-year-old girl was fatally shot after someone fired into her mother’s vehicle.

[Featured Image by Melnotte/iStockPhoto]

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