SANDY SPRINGS, GA. (THECOUNT) — Georgia attorney Bryan Keith Schmitt is accused of fatally striking a pedestrian with his Mercedes in what authorities are calling a case of road rage.
Schmitt, 47 was arrested Monday in the vehicular aggravated assault death of pedestrian Hamid Jahangard.
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A Sandy Springs Police statement says Jahangard was found lying on a sidewalk after being hit by Schmitt’s Mercedes sedan on July 30. He died days later due to blunt force head trauma.
“The fatal encounter stemmed from Jahangard accidentally striking Schmitt’s Mercedes vehicle with a golf ball,” the district attorney’s office told WCVB.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported Schmitt told deputies he was driving past Jahangard, and saw him lean over trash can and make a throwing motion before something hit his sedan.
Schmitt said he made a U-turn and confronted Jahangard. As he tried to pull into the driveway, Schmitt said Jahangard threw the trash can in front of his car to stop him. He swerved to miss the trash can and struck Jahangard in the process.
Jahangard’s brother said he was on the phone with him as the situation unfolded.
He said he heard someone yelling and heard his brother say, “I did not throw anything, get out my face, get out my face.”
There was no damage to the car.
Investigators determined the incident was not an accident, but an instance of road rage.
“The speed used to vault the garbage can, lift the front end of his car up and to slam the victim down so hard it causes a massive skull fracture … is not an accident,” investigator J.T. Williams said.
Jahangard was the father of two children.
Friends and family members took to Facebook to remember the beloved man:
DEVELOPING::
Geo quick facts: Sandy Springs is a city in northern Fulton County, Georgia, United States, and part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, Sandy Springs had a population of 93,853, and its 2017 estimated population was 106,739 – Wikipedia.