Kids saw dad ‘lying in pool of blood’ after road-rage shooting, Georgia mom says
A Georgia family was on their way home from vacation when the driver of a Dodge Charger suddenly opened fire as they drove down a Tennessee interstate — striking the father in the chest.
His two children were in the backseat sleeping.
“I hear my husband screaming, ‘I’ve been shot, I’ve been shot, check the kids make sure they’re okay, I’ve been shot,’” Ashley King, who was driving, told WATE.
The bullet came through the rear passenger door and struck her husband’s lung as they drove down Interstate 75, King said in social media posts. He had to be airlifted to a hospital in Knoxville — about three hours from their home in Calhoun, Georgia, according to a GoFundMe page set up to help the family cover medical bills.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol said officials used a license plate reader to find the suspect, identified as 54-year-old Tyrome Ferguson, of Sweetwater, Tennessee.
Law enforcement received a “be on the lookout” alert at 9:45 p.m. on Feb. 28 for a “reddish, orange colored Dodge Challenger or Charger” reportedly involved in a road-rage shooting near the 65 mile-marker on I-75 in Monroe County, Tennessee. Highway Patrol said the victim, later identified as Patrick King, had been shot in the chest with his wife and two children in the car.
A trooper reportedly recalled seeing the suspect’s car on I-75 about 20 minutes before the shooting.
Highway patrol said the trooper was able to scan his license plate reader system to find the car, run the tag and locate where it was registered. The trooper and a deputy from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office subsequently visited the address, where they found Ferguson.
“Upon interviewing Mr. Ferguson, he confirmed to being involved in the road rage incident in Sweetwater,” Highway patrol said. “He was taken into custody for further questioning by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.”
Ferguson was later charged with four counts of aggravated assault, WBIR reported.
Ashley King told WBIR they were driving home from a vacation in New York with their 1-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter when a car “came up behind us, flashing his lights and honking his horn just driving really crazy.”
The driver then pulled around to pass them and a hail of gunfire erupted, the TV station reported.
“If my daughter had been sitting in the backseat, she would have been hit,” Ashley King said, according to WBIR. “But she was taking a nap in the third row. My 1-year-old son, he was in the backseat behind me while I was driving.”
She called it “the scariest night of our lives” in a Facebook post the following day.
Ashley King described the family’s ordeal in subsequent posts over the next week, saying her husband made it out of surgery but was having trouble sleeping because “every time he closes his eyes he sees flashes from the gun.” She called him an amazing father who was more concerned about the kids’ safety than his own well-being.
“Right after he was shot, his first reaction was for me to get to a stop and check the babies,” King said on Facebook. “After he knew the babies were OK, that’s when he started throwing up and fell out of the car and was in and out of conscience from bleeding so much.”
She said their 8-year-old witnessed “daddy shot and lying in a pool of blood and vomit.”
Patrick King said in a March 6 Facebook post that he is “finally home.” Now Ashley King says the family has a long road to recovery — both physically and emotionally.
“Every time I see a Dodge driving around me, I panic,” she said on Facebook. “My daughter is dealing with so much anger because of what happened. I’m grateful though that our son is so young he doesn’t even remember anything. We will need help after this, I know. Intense therapy. This has affected my family in so many ways.”
This story was originally published March 7, 2022 at 1:51 PM with the headline "Kids saw dad ‘lying in pool of blood’ after road-rage shooting, Georgia mom says."
