TAMARAC, FLA. (WSVN) - A tow truck driver came under fire after the owner of the Smart car he had hooked up to his truck began running after him in Tamarac.
Eric Herr said he’s grateful to be alive, and he believes he had a guardian angel watching over him.
“I got lucky, and God was with me,” he said. “I believe my brother was definitely watching over me that day, that’s for sure.”
Herr, who works from Sky Towing in Davie, responded to the Coral Vista apartment complex, located along the 8000 block of Northwest 96th Terrace in Tamarac, Saturday afternoon.
Police records show he was hooking a car illegally parked in a fire lane belonging to Diego Andres Rodriguez.
Herr got to work hooking up the red Smart car when he heard a man shouting at him.
“Someone started yelling, ‘Mother f-er, stop! Mother f-er,” so I didn’t, obviously,” he said. “I hooked the car and continued going.”
Herr went to secure the vehicle and finish the invoice when he heard the yelling again and a man running toward him.
“I look over my shoulder, and there’s a guy running at me, probably 10 to 12 feet from me,” he said. “As soon as he gets to the median, he started going up like this with his hands, and he’s got a black pistol in his hands.”
Herr sprinted toward his truck.
“I just ran this way, and I was just getting ready to take this step [to get into the truck], and I heard ‘bam, bam, bam,'” he said.
Herr said the man shot several bullets as the tow truck driver tried to get away.
“He shoots four or five more times. Only thing I’m hearing is ‘ding, ding, ding, ding’ through the car. It’s hitting off my boom in my tow truck,” he said.
Those bullets struck the tow truck and pierced the towed Smart car.
Herr said he tried to keep his head down as he drove away.
“I was just like this driving,” he said as he reenacted the tense chain of events.
Herr was able to get away and call police.
“I definitely didn’t think I was going home to my family that night,” he said.
A bullet also struck a couple of homes inside the complex, hitting a hurricane shutter in one and piercing a living room window in another.
Fortunately, no one was hurt.
Herr was not injured, but five years ago, his brother David wasn’t as fortunate.
“My brother was shot and killed doing the same thing that I was doing,” he said.
In 2013, David was called to a complex in Lauderdale Lakes when, authorities said, he was gunned down.
“While he was trying to put down the car with the remote control in his hand, [the gunman] came up behind him and shot him in the back of the head and killed him,” said Herr.
Herr can’t help but feel troubled by this latest triggered act of violence, all over a $100 tow.
“That’s just crazy. I mean, it’s a towed-away car. You can pay $100 and get the car back. Is it really worth somebody’s life, my life or maybe his life together?” he said. “He kills me, and he goes to jail for the rest of his life, and then I’m dead over a tow-away car? It just doesn’t make sense.”
Police arrested Rodriguez, who claimed he was at the complex for a haircut, only stepping outside when he thought he heard fireworks.
He was charged with felony attempted murder and given a $25,000 bond.
Rodriguez bailed out of jail on Monday. He was fitted with an ankle monitor.
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