A former federal prosecutor who was involved with some of the earliest trials involving rioters arrested in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol Building breach has himself been arrested in a suspected road rage incident in Florida after he allegedly stabbed a driver on a highway.
Patrick Scruggs, 39, was reportedly driving along I-275 on Tuesday last week when another vehicle ran into his, police said.
The Independent added: “Video captured by a bystander shows a man – believed to be Mr Scruggs – getting out of his car and appearing to shatter the driver’s window of the other car. The suspect then appears to pull out a pocket knife and slash and slice at the driver’s arms. The unnamed driver, 35, was left with ‘multiple stabs and cuts in the arm,’ according to the arrest report. Police said that the driver had experienced a medical episode moments before the crash, which led him to swerve into two cars – one of them belonging to Mr Scruggs.”
At one point, a Good Samaritan who was driving the second car struck by the victim told CNN he saw that the driver of that vehicle was slumped over his wheel, realizing that he needed some medical assistance.
The Samaritan, Ahmed Gahaf, 40, who is from Tampa, told police he stopped his vehicle to assist the slumping driver. When he did, he said that the driver suddenly awakened and bolted forward, driving his car first into Gahaf’s vehicle and then into a car belonging to Scruggs.
Jan 6 prosecutor arrested for stabbing driver on Florida highway in road rage attack https://t.co/TGH9rhX5nT
— kathy (@kathy55877265) October 2, 2023
A witness video shows Gahaf speaking to a 911 dispatcher as he attempted to get help for the incapacitated driver when Scruggs exited his vehicle. Gahaf said that at first, he believed the suspect was also coming over to help, but then he saw him allegedly stab the previously incapacitated driver. As Gahaf went over to intervene, Scruggs allegedly threatened to knife him as well, nearly cutting his chest.
“I’m thinking he’s coming to help, you know, he’s coming to help, but he comes in like he already has plans,” Gahaf told CNN on Sunday.
“I came in close to him to try to tell him stop… and he came in close to me, like one foot away from me, from my chest with the knife. And he said, ‘You too? You want to kill me?’ I backed from him and was still with 911, and he kept going to stab him (the driver),” Gahaf said.
The Tampa resident and his wife, who was with him at the scene, were not injured, but the previously incapacitated driver was taken to a local hospital with “serious, but non-life-threatening, injuries.”
“I wanted to help the guy and help the other people, too. It could have been a big accident,” Gahaf told NBC News later. “It’s four lanes, and everyone is speeding 80mph. There could have been a big accident.”
Gahaf said he was stunned to learn that Scruggs is a former federal prosecutor.
“I cannot believe it, you know, that’s what drive(s) me crazy. He knows the law,” he said.
According to his arrest affidavit, Scruggs has been charged with armed burglary, aggravated assault, and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
“Prior to the road rage incident, the prosecutor had an illustrious career, working for over a decade as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Department of Justice, before joining an Altanta-based law firm, Barnes & Thornburg, in May this year,” The Independent reported.
“He is best known for being involved in the early prosecution of Adam Johnson, known as the ‘lectern guy’ who ran off with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lectern during the January 6 Capitol riots,” the outlet noted further.
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