Alleged road rage incident leads to felony assault, endangering charges
A local man was arrested on felony assault and child endangerment charges Saturday evening after an alleged road rage incident involving another motorist on the King Expressway while he had a child in his car.
Eric Wayne Dossey, 48, who lists a Western Street address, was taken into custody shortly before 6 p.m. and charged with aggravated assault and first-degree endangering the welfare of a minor, each punishable by up to six years in prison.
Dossey was later released on $5,000 bond and is set to appear Thursday in Garland County District Court. According to court records, Dossey was convicted in 1995 in Little River County of residential burglary and sentenced to six years in prison, with all of it suspended, and then was convicted in 2004 in Lincoln County of furnishing prohibited articles and sentenced to three years’ probation.
According to the probable cause affidavit, shortly after 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Hot Springs Police officer Stephen Parrott responded to the parking lot of Harbor Freight Tools, 3818 Central Ave., regarding a shots fired incident that had reportedly occurred on the King Expressway.
Parrott made contact with a man who stated he was driving east on the expressway and a silver BMW was following him “due to a road rage incident” that had happened earlier. He alleges the driver of the BMW displayed a handgun and when he was between the Higdon Ferry Road and Central Avenue exits his vehicle was struck by gunfire from the rear.
He states he then got behind the BMW as it exited on Central headed south and both vehicles stopped at the off ramp. He said the driver of the BMW, a white male, walked up to his driver’s side door and slammed the driver’s side mirror of his truck and then punched his driver’s side door before getting back in his BMW and leaving.
The man said he followed the BMW to the parking lot at Harbor Freight and called police. He gave a physical description of the driver and his clothing and noted there was a child in the vehicle with him.
Parrott noted there was damage to the rear driver’s side corner of the truck “consistent with being struck by a bullet,” and damage to the driver’s side door consistent with being struck with a closed fist and damage to the mirror.
The BMW had left, but was pulled over by a Garland County Sheriff’s deputy in the 2000 block of Airport Road and the driver, identified as Dossey, matched the description given by the driver of the truck.
When questioned, Dossey reportedly admitted to being involved in an altercation with the driver of the truck.