Cops: Driver shoots at truck in road-rage attack

A dispute between two drivers on Interstate 95 raged from Boca Raton to Pompano Beach on Thursday morning — and ended with three bullets fired into the tailgate and bumper of a pickup truck, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

The truck’s driver was not hurt when the bullets hit his 1997 Dodge pickup at the Atlantic Boulevard exit at about 7:14 a.m., said Lt. Al Feola, FHP spokesman.

The suspected shooter, driving a 2004 four-door Toyota, was arrested about noon, after Broward sheriff’s deputies spotted him driving on Dixie Highway south of Atlantic Boulevard, Feola said.

Deputies found an automatic handgun in the Toyota that Joseph Brown was driving, Feola said. Brown, 46, of West Palm Beach, was booked into the Broward Main Jail, records show.

Brown has worked in construction and held jobs with UPS and the U.S. Post Office and has lived in Tampa, Panama City, Gainesville, Crystal River, Lecanto and Killeen, Texas, records show.

At the time of a 2000 trespassing conviction in Panama City, Brown was listed as being transient, according to public records.

The tension between the two drivers ignited as they drove

south near Palmetto Park Road in Palm Beach County, according to FHP.

“The two subjects became engaged in a roadrage argument as they were driving on the highway,” Feola said. He did not specify what sparked the squabble.

Taishan Spicer, 31, tried to get away from Brown by exiting at Atlantic Boulevard. At the last minute, he tried to re-enter I-95 but “misjudged the distance” and had to stop on a portion of the exit ramp, Feola said.

Brown drove up behind Spicer’s truck, took aim through his open driver’s window, fired three times into the back of the pickup and took off, FHP said.

Two bullets struck the tailgate and another hit the bumper.

Spicer called police, stayed at the scene and positively identified Brown as the shooter after he was pulled over, FHP said.

Efforts to reach Spicer for comment were not successful.