Nicolas Totherow told deputies he had no remorse. He admitted he intended to kill the driver. His reason: the SUV cut him off and brake-checked him twice.
That was enough, apparently, for Totherow to open fire on a family of four on a Tuesday afternoon in Hillsborough County, Florida. He chased the SUV across surface streets and onto Interstate 4 while squeezing off multiple rounds.
On April 29, a 911 caller reported a car-to-car shooting near the intersection of Wiggins Road and Highway 92. The caller described a man chasing an SUV and firing at it. The pursuit wound westbound on Highway 92, turned north on Park Road, then merged onto I-4 eastbound. Shots were fired along the entire route.
The victims eventually peeled off I-4 at County Line Road while Totherow continued east on the interstate. Deputies located the family’s SUV and found multiple bullet holes. One round had punched through the back seat, right next to a child’s booster seat.
A child was sitting in that car. A child whose parent apparently committed the unforgivable sin of tapping the brakes.
Deputies identified and arrested Totherow within hours of the incident. The speed of the arrest was aided by witness accounts and the 911 call. What followed in the interview room was as chilling as the shooting itself.
After being read his Miranda rights, Totherow laid it all out. Prosecutors cited his statements in a motion seeking to hold him without bond, noting he freely admitted to firing multiple times at the occupied vehicle and explicitly stated his intent to kill the driver. He expressed zero remorse.
The charges reflect the gravity of what happened: attempted murder, shooting into an occupied vehicle, and discharging a firearm from a vehicle. But the rap sheet doesn’t stop there. Totherow was also hit with armed possession of a controlled substance — a vape pen containing cannabis resin, which remains illegal for recreational use in Florida — and driving on a suspended license.
So here’s the picture: a man with no valid driver’s license, carrying an illegal substance and a firearm, who decided a brake check justified a multi-mile shooting spree targeting a car with children inside. And then told law enforcement exactly that, without hesitation.
Road rage incidents involving firearms have been climbing steadily across the country. Everytown for Gun Safety has tracked hundreds of shootings tied to road rage annually in recent years. Florida, with its permissive gun laws and a population that seems magnetically attracted to vehicular chaos, consistently ranks among the worst states for these incidents.
Brake-checking is obnoxious. It’s dangerous. It can cause accidents. It is also, by any legal or moral standard on earth, not a capital offense. The gap between being annoyed on the highway and emptying a weapon into a family vehicle is not a spectrum. It’s a canyon.
Totherow is currently being held pending further court proceedings. Prosecutors are pushing for no bond, and given his own admissions, it’s hard to imagine a judge seeing it differently.
The family survived. The child survived. That’s not thanks to Totherow’s restraint. It’s thanks to his aim.
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