Your affiant, Investigator Stephen Rhinehart, swears that on March 26th, 2013, at approximately 1:30am, the defendant, Jasper Samuel Gurganus, did so commit the offenses of Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon, Shooting into an Occupied Vehicle, and Discharging a Firearm in Public within 1,000 feet of a person.
The victim, Anthony S. Johnson, and the defendant’s ex-wife, Tasha Gurganus, were traveling south on US Highway 231 in Anthony’s Ford F250 truck. While in the area of the Piggly Wiggly located in Fountain, FL, Anthony and Tasha passed by the defendant’s truck as it was parked on the side of the road of the southbound side of Highway 231. Upon passing the defendant’s truck the defendant accelerated and proceeded to come up along side of the victim and Tasha.
According to the victim, the defendant appeared to be motioning for them to pull over, but the victim said that he did not want to do so due to the uncertainty of the defendant’s intentions. After a few moments of not pulling over, the victim said that he heard a “popping” sound coming from the area where the defendant’s truck was at. Tasha then told the victim that the defendant was shooting at them and that they needed to speed up to get away from him.
As the victim attempted to speed up to evade the defendant, the defendant continued following them and continued to shoot at them as they traveled south on Highway 231. The victim said that he tried everything he could do to lose the defendant in the chase, but was unsuccessful. As they turned onto Webber Rd., the defendant became stuck on the side of the dirt road in a ditch type area. Upon getting stuck, the defendant continued to shoot at the victim’s truck. At some point during the ordeal, the rear window to the victim’s truck was struck by a bullet, shattering it in the process.
The victim nor Tasha Gurganus were struck by any of the shots fired at the truck. While the defendant was firing the gun at the victim’s truck, he was inside of 1,000 feet of them and obviously knew that the vehicle was occupied.
Upon further investigation into the matter, a 9mm handgun was located inside of the defendant’s truck and five 9mm shell casings were found around and on the defendant’s truck. Based on the above listed facts of the case, the defendant was found to be in violation of FSS 784.021,790.19, and 790.15(2).
This offense did occur in Bay County Florida.
