A former Florida Mayo Clinic doctor is facing felony charges after allegedly firing a pistol at a car full of high schoolers who pelted his Range Rover with cheese, according to police.
Dr. Bruce Mitchell, 67, was arrested in Ponte Vedra Beach Saturday evening after an alarming high-speed car chase that began with a seemingly innocuous teen prank.
Five student athletes from a Jacksonville private school admitted to police they had been “throwing cheese” from their car at a stoplight — but said things escalated when a black Range Rover began bearing down on them after the light turned green, the St. John’s Citizen reported.
The Range Rover — identified by cops as Mitchell’s — aggressively tailed the teens, who accelerated and swerved between lanes to escape.
Mitchell then allegedly waved a gun out the Rover’s window and fired a round into the air — causing the teenage driver to stomp on the gas and peel away as fast as he could.
The high schooler told police he was thinking “didn’t want to die” the whole time, while one of his passengers said he was “in fear for his and his friends’ lives” as they frantically called 911 from the car.
Mitchell allegedly stopped following the teens after police passed them, and he drove off in a different direction. He was stopped by police a short time later.
The doctor stepped out of his car without being directed, court documents show, with officers drawing their weapons and ordering him to surrender before he complied.
“I then gave loud verbal commands to walk backwards to the sound of my voice,” a responding officer said in an incident report obtained by the Citizen.
A Sig Sauer pistol was found in Mitchell’s glovebox, with a loaded magazine on the passenger seat and a spent bullet cartridge lying in the footwell.
After his arrest, Mitchell told police, “they shot at me first” before refusing to speak, court documents show.
No weapons were found in the teens’ car.
Mitchell is charged with discharge of a weapon from a vehicle and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill. He was released on bond after being booked.
The doctor previously served as director of Hospital Medicine at Emory University, according to his LinkedIn profile, and served at the Jacksonville Mayo Clinic for 14 years.
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