Former federal prosecutor Patrick Douglas Scruggs is at the center of an alleged road rage incident in Florida that recently closed parts of a major bridge for nearly three hours.
A statement obtained by PEOPLE from Sergeant Steve Gaskins of the Florida Highway Patrol says that at 9:24 a.m. Tuesday, FHP officers responded to a three-vehicle crash along the southbound lanes of I-275 on the Howard Frankland Bridge. .
The incident began when a 35-year-old Tampa man, identified by authorities as Driver 1, was spotted climbing down in his car. According to the affidavit, Driver 2, a 40-year-old Tampa man, and his 43-year-old wife stopped to see if they could help the person who appeared to be unresponsive. NBC News identified Driver 2 as Ahmed Gahaf.
According to FHP, after Gahaf got out of his own vehicle to check on Driver 1, he went back into his car to look for something to break the window with in an attempt to help Driver 1, who had collapsed.
“Before this occurred, Driver 1 awoke and moved forward, colliding with Driver 2’s vehicle,” the statement said. “Unable to continue forward, driver 1 went into reverse and attempted to overtake driver 2’s vehicle; rather, driver 1 collided with the vehicle of driver 3 who was passing by the incident.”
Driver 3 was identified in the affidavit as Patrick Douglas Scruggs, an attorney, who was 38 at the time of the incident but turned 39 on Thursday. According to his LinkedIn page, Scruggs served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the US Department of Justice between September 2012 and April 2023.
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Patrick Douglas Scruggs.
Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office
The FHP statement added that Scruggs “stopped, exited his vehicle, approached Driver 1, broke the side window and began stabbing Driver 1 multiple times with a pocket knife.”
That’s when Gahaf and his wife intervened to try to stop the attack on Driver 1, however, the statement said that “as the couple approached, Driver 3 distracted him and attempted to stab” the couple.
“Both of them ran away before they were injured,” the HLC added.
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“It surprised me why he did it,” Gahaf told NBC News on Thursday. “He said, ‘You’re with him? You two want to kill me?’ Then he came at me with a knife.”
According to the HLC statement, the police officer from St. Petersburg who was driving on the bridge at the time noticed the incident and pulled over, detained Scruggs and rendered aid to Driver 1 who was “transported to an area hospital with serious but not life-threatening injuries.”
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Howard Frankland Bridge, Florida.
Getty
“I wanted to help the guy and help other people, too. It could have been a big accident,” Gahaf explained in his interview with NBC News. “There are four lanes and everyone is going 80 mph. It could have been a big accident.”
Tuesday’s events didn’t stop Gahaf from vowing to continue helping others in need.
“I’ll do it every time, no doubt about it,” he said. “We have to help people when we see something, especially in the middle of the highway. Someone is stuck in the middle of the road, they need our help, no doubt.”
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Authorities added in a statement that Scruggs was booked into the Pinellas County Jail and charged with aggravated battery, aggravated assault and burglary of a business.
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According to court records seen by PEOPLE, the former prosecutor posted $65,000 bail and pleaded not guilty to the charges.
“He had no criminal history. This is a completely isolated incident,” his attorney, John Nohlgren, told NBC News.
“He’s got a bunch of cops and prosecutors coming up to him and saying, ‘This is not the Patrick Scruggs we know; something must have happened.’ That’s the reaction so far. Portraying that he’s some guy who jumps out and starts stabbing a person or that’s not what happened, but it’s also not [who] my client [is]and not his personality,’ Nohlgren added.
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Source: HIS Education