DANIA BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - A man waiting to pick up his vehicle at a Dania Beach tow yard threw a violent fit because he claimed to have waited longer than expected, and that’s when fearful employees fired shots.
Thirty-nine-year-old Lee Jason Steinberg lost his cool while waiting for his Dodge Ram pickup at Mac’s Towing near Phippen Waiters Road and Southwest Second Place, Tuesday afternoon.
His vehicle was impounded at the tow yard on Monday after being arrested over the weekend, and due to some complications, the process took longer than he had hoped. Then, at some point, Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies said, Steinberg rammed his truck into the gate, dislodging it from the fence.
Officials wrote in a report that “the defendant then drove the vehicle in reverse and crashed through the gate.” That’s when deputies said the employee “produced a Ruger .380 handgun and fired seven shots at the rear of the Dodge Ram pickup as it was speeding towards them.”
Deputies said that was when an employee opened fire in an attempt to arm himself. He struck the SUV.
“Somebody else was operating a forklift of the tow yard, struck the passenger side of the Dodge Ram pickup,” said Judge Kim Mollica.
Moments after, Steinberg got out of his truck and fled on foot, but he didn’t get far. Officials captured him a few blocks away at a pizza shop.
There was a passenger inside the SUV who was injured in the shoot out. She was transported to the hospital but was discharged shortly after.
Witnesses told 7News what the heard when shots rang out.
“I was just working away. I heard something that, I thought it was maybe a car going down the street with a flat tire,” witness Eric Bossie said, “kind of like, ‘rap, rap, rap, rap, rap.’ That’s what it was, and then it stopped, and then it continued again.”
Steinberg is now behind bars and has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, burglary and criminal mischief. He’s being held on $75,000 bond.
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