A devastating road rage incident that occurred over the weekend in Phoenix has claimed the lives of a father and his young daughter, while also leaving other family members injured, according to a report from FOX 10 Phoenix. The victims, identified as 29-year-old Quincy Polk and his 8-year-old daughter Envy Cardenas, were involved in a confrontation that escalated to gunfire in a Lowe's parking lot near 19th Avenue and Baseline Road around 2:45 p.m. on Nov. 22. Polk's fiancé, Alexis Cardenas, survived with multiple gunshot wounds; their 5-year-old daughter is recovering from a gunshot to the leg, their one-year-old child was unharmed despite being present during the incident.
The mother and grandmother of the deceased, Joesra Martin, told FOX 10 Phoenix, "I feel like part of my life is gone, I don't just have one funeral, I got two funerals I gotta prepare for." The suspect, Tyrone Dee Chilly, is currently in Maricopa County jail, facing several charges, including murder; witnesses claimed they saw Chilly, after a tailgating incident quickly devolved into a physical altercation, retrieve a gun from his vehicle and fire multiple shots into Polk's car where the children were seated. Chilly purportedly told police post the shooting that he wasn't aware children were inside the car until the mother began screaming about her baby.
Additional details from court documents offer insight into the suspect's account of the events preceding the deadly shooting, as reported by AZ Family. According to Chilly's statement, an allegedly tailgating "tan SUV" honked multiple times, leading to a physical confrontation where he claims to have been beaten by Polk and kicked by Polk's fiancé, Alexis Cardenas, Chilly said he then fetched his handgun from his car after Polk supposedly threatened to kill him during the scuffle and used it with the intent to defend himself from further assault.
Chilly, who has been detained on a $1 million cash-only bond, expressed to the investigators that he did not realize the shots he fired at Polk's SUV also endangered Polk's family, including his children, held inside the vehicle; the suspect claimed his actions were a reaction to being assaulted, detailed in the arresting paperwork where he additionally noted he didn't see the other vehicle that was hit during the gunfire, a yellow Volkswagen van reported by its occupants as being shot at leading them to have to "duck" for safety, as described in a statement obtained by AZ Family.
The family, now facing the loss and the costs for two funerals, has set up a GoFundMe page to help cover the expenses, with further information available for those wishing to support through a link provided by FOX 10 Phoenix.
