Port St. Lucie Police Chief Leo Niemczyk publicly detailed how a lane-change misunderstanding escalated into a Thursday evening shooting on Southwest Brevity Terrace, and explained why 57-year-old Tylon Kukielka, who fired the shots, faces more serious charges than 41-year-old Dean Plotts, who threw the first punch.
Police received a 911 call around 6:30 p.m. reporting gunshots in a residential neighborhood near Southwest California Boulevard and Southwest Brevity Terrace. The altercation began as a misunderstanding during a lane change and merge near Southwest Crosstown Parkway. Plotts exited his vehicle, approached Kukielka, who was seated in his car, and punched him through the window.
"He stepped out of his vehicle, approached the other man who was seated inside his vehicle, and punched him inside his vehicle, so now he's breaking the plane of the window," Niemczyk said. "Therefore, entering, which makes it a burglary of the conveyance with the intention of committing a crime, being battery by punching the other individual who is seated inside the vehicle."
Plotts then returned to his vehicle, but Kukielka fired a handgun, striking Plotts twice. When asked if Kukielka's actions could be considered self-defense, Niemczyk said it was not. "If Plotts had been coming at him at that point, the shooting may well have been justified, but it was actually just the reverse. He was fleeing from him," Niemczyk said.
Both men were arrested and are facing felony charges. A 911 caller described the aftermath: "I heard it, and then I saw a guy raising his hands up and said he had blood on his hands."
Niemczyk urged residents to avoid escalating road rage disputes. "Because one thought the other one may have cut the other one off when they were both turning into the same roadway. Again, no reason to be facing felony charges; let it go, let it go," Niemczyk said.