MACCLENNY, Fla. – A Baker County man will undergo surgery today after deputies say he was severely beaten in an extreme case of road rage.
The man responsible is a corrections officer from Georgia. He has been arrested for attacking a man after a road rage incident.
"This was an extremely violent attack in our opinion," Major Gerald Gonzalez, of the Baker County Sheriff's Office, said. Police say the incident happened on a busy interstate in Baker County. The Sheriff's Office says the victim was beaten so badly, his entire upper body was covered in blood.
The two men involved in the attack tell very different stories but investigators say the evidence doesn't lie.
Jeffrey Ledford, 56, was almost to his home exit about 5 miles west of Macclenny, when he was beaten.
Deputies say it started in a road rage incident with 37-year-old corrections officer Dwayne King tailing Ledford on I-10.
Ledford changed lanes and said that's when King swerved and hit him.
The cars stopped and Ledford said King tried to break his window with his gun.
When it didn't break, he said Ledford "snatched open his door" and started "beating him in the head and face with the gun."
He said King attacked him again on the side of the road and fired his gun.
King told a much different story, saying Ledford is to blame.
"We had some independent witnesses who thankfully chose to stop and give their versions, and at least one of the witnesses videoed almost the entire incident with her cellphone and, obviously, contradicted the person we arrested's version of the story of what happened," Gonzalez said.
That, coupled with evidence at the scene, led to King's arrest.
"You're off duty, there's an opportunity to call 911 and let on-duty law enforcement handle those situations. It's apparently a case of what often happens in road rage cases and that is someone lost their cool and made a poor decision here and very nearly took someone's life as a result of the rage," Gonzalez said.
King is being held in jail on $600,000 bond. Ledford's jaw is broken in multiple places and is expected to have several surgeries beginning this morning. He is not facing any charges.