An easygoing 38-year-old man who warned friends not to be aggressive while driving was fatally shot during a road-rage incident that lasted roughly two miles on a Florida roadway, sheriff’s officials and distraught friends said.
Scott Bartolotti, of Tampa, was driving by himself in Land O’Lakes late Tuesday near Collier Parkway and State Road 54 when he and another motorist had a dispute that continued for roughly two miles before the unidentified man opened fire on Bartolotti’s vehicle, the Tampa Bay Times reports.
Bartolotti was pronounced dead near US Route 41 and State Road 54, where the suspected shooter stayed on the scene and has cooperated with investigators, sheriff officials told the newspaper. The unidentified man had not been charged as of Wednesday and investigators are now asking for witnesses to come forward and report what they saw. Messages seeking additional comment from sheriff’s officials were not immediately returned Thursday.
But a longtime friend of Bartolotti — who worked as a glazier in Tampa — said the incident was so out of character for her childhood confidante.
“Don’t yell at people,” Brandy Stevens told the newspaper, recalling Bartolotti’s prior advice. “Don’t honk your horn.”
Details of what immediately preceded the shooting remain unclear, but Stevens questioned why the suspected shooter remained free while Bartolotti’s family prepares for his funeral.
“Why would he have the right to shoot him?” Stevens said. “It’s not right. I don’t care what you say to somebody.”
A woman who identified herself as Bartolotti’s girlfriend said he was headed to Walmart prior to the shooting. There’s no indication that Bartolotti and the suspected gunman knew each other, sheriff’s officials told WFLA.
“We are still working through this investigation and trying to find out what initiated this road-rage incident to result in the gunfire,” Pasco County Lt. Luby Fields told the station. “That part is still under investigation, but we can confirm it was road rage and the scene is secured. There is no need for any public concern or anything like that.”
Deputies told the station that the driver and a passenger in the car from which the shot was fired were speaking with investigators about the deadly shooting. Anyone with additional information about the incident is asked to call the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office at (727) 847-8102.
Bartolotti’s co-workers at Ashe Glass & Mirror, meanwhile, echoed Stevens’ characterization of the man who liked to take in stray animals, including two cats he currently owned.
“He’s not the type to get hyped up or amped up in any way,” colleague Dustin Kamermayer told WTSP. “He’s very laid-back.”
Another co-worker, David Rhodes, said Bartolotti was the kind of person who would “drop his hat in a minute” to help someone in need. His girlfriend also told the station that she was making arrangements to have his organs donated.
Kamermayer, meanwhile, offered a bit of advice for potential disputes while driving, something that Bartolotti himself might have suggested prior to Tuesday’s fatal shooting.
“Take a deep breath and keep going,” he told WTSP. “Don’t start anything.”
