Trenton man arrested for waving gun in road rage incidents

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Clayton Andrew Green, 41, of Trenton, was arrested yesterday after allegedly waving a gun during a road rage incident on Archer Road. A charge in a second case was added this morning after Green was identified as the suspect in a similar incident on July 19.

At about 6:05 a.m. yesterday, an Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy responded to a call about an armed disturbance in the 4100 block of SW Archer Road. The deputy spoke with the victims at their residence, and the victims said they were driving northbound on SW 41st Boulevard, towards Archer Road, when a man in a blue minivan made an illegal U-turn in front of them, nearly causing a crash.

The victims said they got into an argument with the man, who got out of the minivan and walked toward their car with a holstered pistol in his hand. The victims said he never pointed the pistol at them, but he held it in a threatening manner while pointing it in the air. Both victims reportedly said that the holster was orange and the grip end of the pistol was clearly visible. The male victim, a juvenile, reportedly said the pistol may have been a revolver because the man had his thumb on the back of the weapon.

The man reportedly yelled, “What?!” and then yelled a racial epithet at the victims.

The victims provided the deputy with the tag number of the minivan, and the van reportedly pulled into the Wawa on SW Archer Road, where a male pumped gas while a woman walked into the store to purchase food. The arrest report filed today noted that it was believed during the investigation that the minivan belonged to the female passenger, and deputies were unable to identify the man at the time.

Deputies conducted a traffic stop on a blue minivan in the 6700 block of Newberry Road about an hour later. The driver, identified as Green, reportedly matched the description provided by the victims and spontaneously said he was probably being stopped because of an incident earlier in the morning.

Post Miranda, Green reportedly acknowledged he had been involved in a traffic-related incident near Archer Road when he tried to make a U-turn. He reportedly acknowledged that he had pulled out in front of a car and that the male passenger in the car started yelling at his girlfriend, who was in the passenger seat of the minivan. He reportedly noted that the victims never got out of their car but said he got out of his vehicle and walked toward their car, “close enough to kick the front bumper,” and shouted, “What?!” at the victims. He reportedly denied brandishing a firearm and said the victims probably saw his pistol in the driver’s side door; he said the pistol is plainly visible whenever the driver’s side door is open.

Green reportedly gave deputies consent to retrieve the firearm, but the arresting deputy reported that the firearm was not in plain view when the driver’s side door was opened. Deputies removed a .22 caliber revolver in a leather holster, loaded with five rounds, from the door of the vehicle. The rear grip of the revolver was reportedly plainly visible sticking out of the holster.

The deputy contacted the victims over Facetime so they could positively identify Green as the man they encountered near Archer Road. The female driver reportedly said he “looked like” the driver of the van, but she couldn’t be sure because she thought he was wearing a different shirt. The juvenile passenger reportedly positively identified Green as the driver of the van and said his shirt may have looked different because it was dark at the time of the incident.

The arresting deputy noted that there have been several similar reports involving a blue minivan and a driver matching Green’s description wielding a pistol, one on July 12 and one on July 19. Victims in both incidents reportedly provided the same tag number.

A second arrest report filed today states that on July 19, an ASO Deputy responded to the 9800 block of W. Newberry Road regarding an armed disturbance. The victim reportedly said she had honked at a man driving a blue Toyota minivan; she said she was sitting in the turn lane of NW 98th Street at Newberry Road when the man pointed a pistol at her and said, “I will kill you.” She said she and the man continued arguing until the light changed, and at one point, the man reportedly said, “If you keep talking, I will kill you.”

Yesterday afternoon, a deputy administered a photo lineup to the victim in the July 19 incident, and she reportedly picked Green out of the lineup as the man who had pointed a gun at her.

Green has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, improper display of a firearm, and child abuse without great bodily harm in the July 22 case and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the July 19 case. Green has no local criminal history, although he was arrested in 2008 for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and improper exhibition of a firearm and the charges were later dropped; Judge Meshon Rawls set bail in the July 22 case at $100,000, and bail in the July 19 case will be set tomorrow.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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