![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-16T175227.856.webp?resize=307%2C341&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nThe sheriff\u2019s office said the victims, including the child, were traveling south on Harden Boulevard near Pipkin Road when Stephen Phillips, of Mulberry, \u201cbrake checked\u201d their vehicle and was driving erratically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both cars came to a stop side-by-side at a traffic light, and Phillips pulled out a gun, pointing it toward the victims, deputies said. The sheriff\u2019s office said the victims reported Phillips made \u201crepeated racial slurs\u201d and that they feared for their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Phillips denied pulling a gun but later admitted to pulling it, though he told deputies he did not point it at the victims\u2019 vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe victims provided detectives a photo of the encounter, which showed Phillips holding up a .22 caliber Phoenix Arms HP firearm,\u201d the sheriff\u2019s office said in a release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Phillips was arrested and faces charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and improper exhibition of a firearm. The sheriff\u2019s office said Phillips is an optician in Lakeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Sheriff Grady Judd, Phillips had no criminal history prior to his arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou know, I try to educate people. I try to coach people. I beg people not to get involved in road rage,\u201d Judd said in a news conference on Tuesday. \u201cJust back off and leave the people alone because it does not turn out well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A 64-year-old man was arrested Sunday after pulling a gun and pointing it toward another vehicle that had a 3-year-old child inside, according to the Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office. The… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMTJcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtMjAyNS0xMi0xNlQxNzUyMjcuODU2LndlYnA_Zml0PTMwNyUyQzM0MSZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6Ik1hbiBwb2ludHMgZ3VuIGF0IGFub3RoZXIgY2FyIHdpdGggY2hpbGQgaW5zaWRlIGluIFBvbGsgQ291bnR5IHJvYWQgcmFnZSBpbmNpZGVudCIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.eIbeWv0Q_ydIUA-alDTpERYl1vqwlT1Gwh9gwzumHzQMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":59963,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-16T175227.856.webp","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[12867],"class_list":["post-59962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-man-points-gun-at-another-car-with-child-inside-in-polk-county-road-rage-incident"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59964,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59962\/revisions\/59964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}