Road Rage Escalates To Shooting In Florida Strip Mall Parking Lot, DEA Retiree Facing Charges

BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA — Earlier this past august, a motorist found himself shot after confronting another angry motorist during a road-rage incident.

According to police, two angry motorists were arguing in the street when the argument eventually spilled over into the parking lot of the Vitamin Shoppe at the Boynton Plaza Place Shopping Center. During the confrontation, one driver pulled out a gun. It is unclear who shot whom, but one of the drivers shot the other, allegedly in self-defense, and the other driver ended up in the hospital fighting for his life.

The shooter remained at the scene and was questioned by police in their ongoing investigation; however, no one was arrested at that time.

UPDATE: Police surveillance video, as well as dash-cam video footage from the shooter’s car, were recovered by investigators, leading to the arrest of the alleged shooter.

As contained in the arrest report, Former Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Brad Sosnowsky, 55, a highly decorated DEA retiree who served under President Bush, had nearly collided with the victim, 67-year-old Thomas Vanatwerp III’s car as they exited I-95. Citing dash cam footage from inside Sosnowsky’s car, he raced west at speeds of up to 70 MPH towards a stop light where could be heard saying “Come on, (expletive). Let’s go”.

Furthermore, the arrest report states that Vanatwerp approached Sosnowsky’s car, and before he got to the car Sosnowsky fired, hitting Vanatwerp in the chest. They then pulled into a shopping center and Sosnowsky called police saying that he shot because he thought he was going to be attacked.

Vanatwerp was transported to the hospital with life threatening injuries, he even went into cardiac arrest at some point, and had to be resuscitated.

The dash cam recorded a diabolically damning statement from Sosnowsky at the scene as Vanatwerp was injured; “That’s what you get for trying to throw a punch to my face”.

Police say that the video reveals Vanatwerp was unarmed and never tried to, nor even had an opportunity to hit the former DEA agent.

Vanatwerp remains in critical condition with internal bleeding and damage to his organs.