An early morning dispute at a Zephyrhills Wawa escalated into a vehicular and shooting incident involving a garbage truck, according to local authorities. Quinson De'Shawn Croson, 46, the manager of LA Billiards, is now facing two counts of attempted murder after reportedly chasing down a garbage truck and shooting its driver following a heated argument. Zephyrhills Police Detained Croson, who is a Dade City resident, yesterday.
The initial confrontation between Croson and the driver, who were known to each other prior to the incident, occurred around 5 a.m. last Friday. The victim, suggesting that Croson seemed intoxicated, recommended that he go home, but the situation, "quickly escalated," according to WTSP. Witnesses and evidence presented to the police described Croson following the garbage truck in his black GMC Yukon SUV, and at some point during the pursuit, he fired multiple shots from a handgun at the truck.
The chase came to a violent end near Dairy Road after Croson's SUV collided with the garbage truck, causing the truck's passenger-side door to open and eject one worker, as stated by FOX 13 News. Both the garbage truck driver, who was shot in the forearm, and his coworker, who sustained non-life-threatening injuries, were treated at AdventHealth hospitals in Zephyrhills and Dade City, respectively.
Following the incident, Croson fled the scene but was later traced and arrested in Hillsborough County. Surveillance footage from nearby businesses and dash cam video from an independent witness corroborated the accounts by showing the aggressive pursuit, gunshots fired, and the eventual crash. Croson, who is a convicted felon and thus prohibited from possessing firearms, was positively identified as the shooter by the truck driver upon interviewing at the hospital, "both victims’ accounts were consistent and supported by physical evidence and surveillance video," said the police department, as reported by WFLA.
