DAVENPORT, Fla. — An arrest in a deadly road rage shooting on Interstate 4 in Polk County is giving friends some comfort, but their heartbreak is still fresh.
"I don't know how to describe someone who would do this. I don't. I can't, I wouldn't," Terri Kunau said.
She's 58-year-old Kevin Berry's childhood friend. She says he was kind and would do anything for anyone. The news he's gone and how he died is still hard to process.
"The bullet went through the passenger window through the driver's window and struck Kevin and dropped him in the middle of the road. He left him there to die. I can't imagine what that person is, who that person is. and how he lives with himself," Kunau said.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd says the man responsible is Daniele Hamilton. Deputies say the 58-year-old was arrested at his home after finding his gun and three empty casings.
"He said, 'Well, you got what you need. I'm ready to go to jail,'" Judd said.
According to court documents, Hamilton's criminal past is extensive. Deputies say this time road rage led him to pull a gun on Berry early Sunday morning near the intersection of I-4 and Highway 27. Berry was headed to work at the time from Altamonte Springs.
"He's had three felony arrests, three misdemeanor arrest, drug charges, fighting charges, robbery charges. We don't know who started the road work rage, but we know this. We know that when Daniel shot and killed Kevin, he ended the road rage and that's called murder," Judd said.
For Kunau, 45 years of friendship senselessly came to an end. She wishes Berry never got into the altercation.
"Sadly, in this instance, he forgot the phrase sticks and stones. But it still is no excuse for someone to pull out a gun," Kunau said.
Deputies say security cameras caught the fight and both of Berry and Hamilton's vehicles. Now they're hoping the people in three other cars in the area at the time will come forward.
"I'm hoping that now that they have this person in custody those people in those three cars that they're still looking to talk to aren't going to be afraid to come forward anymore," Kunau said.
A closed case will give Kevin's loved ones answers. They want him to be remembered as a loving and gentle man.
"He would go out of his way. That was the person he was and now he's gone," Kunau said.
Judd says Berry was outside of his truck when he was shot, but was not armed. They are still waiting for the ballistics report to come back on Hamilton's gun. For now, he's charged with second-degree murder.