Man stabbed, 8-year-old girl shot in Phoenix road rage incident

PHOENIX – Three people were hospitalized, including a young girl, after a road rage incident escalated to gunfire on a Phoenix street Thursday, authorities said.

Two vehicles that were involved stopped near 16th Street and Greenway Parkway, and a man got out of green Jeep and started a fight with a man in a black passenger car, Sgt. Brian Bower said during a press briefing at the scene.

“As far as the initial information that we have, the gentleman in the Jeep, he was the one that instigated the road rage incident,” Bower said.

During the fight, the man who was in the car used a knife to stab the man from the Jeep, Bower said. When the man with the knife got into his car and started driving off, the suspected road rage instigator pulled out a gun and started shooting.

A woman and a girl were also in the car that was driving away.

“The bullets ended up hitting and striking the vehicle,” Bower said. “It also struck an 8-year-old female. … That juvenile was taken to a local hospital, where she is still listed in critical condition – stable but critical condition at this time.”

The 28-year-old-man man who was driving suffered a minor hand injury that required treatment, Bower said.

The man from the Jeep, who is 48 years old, suffered critical knife wounds.

“We have nobody outstanding at this time,” Bower said.

Detectives were still working to determine what led up to the stabbing and shooting, he said.

Anybody with information about the case was asked to call the Phoenix Police Department at 602-262-6151 or, to remain anonymous, Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS (948-6377) or 480-TESTIGO (837-8446) for Spanish.

“If a situation with road rage occurs, the best thing to do is pull over,” Bower said. “If you don’t feel safe pulling over, the next thing you do is call 911, and dispatchers will kind of guide you to where their officers are.”

Follow @KTAR923