Tampa Police have arrested a man accused of fatally stabbing a passenger in another vehicle to death during a road rage altercation on April 4.
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Authorities say Teddy Baltimore Smith, 44, was arrested around 10 p.m. Wednesday night and will be charged with second-degree murder. An electrician from Oldsmar, Smith has prior arrests for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment and battery.
Earlier Wednesday, Tampa Police investigators located the vehicle that was reportedly driven by the suspect.
"Late last night some of our officers located the vehicle," said Tampa Police spokesperson Steve Hegarty, referring to the black BMW investigators had been searching for since the incident Wednesday morning. “Once we confirmed that it was the vehicle early this morning, we seized that vehicle.”
Smith is accused of stabbing Gilbert Serna, 56, after a verbal altercation that started while the truck that Serna was a passenger in and the black BMW were both stopped at a traffic light along Fowler Avenue.
Serna reportedly spit out his window, and the spit landed on the driver's arm, prompting the confrontation and eventually the driver stabbing Serna before fleeing the scene.
Serna later died at a local hospital.
The arrest of Smith came as little comfort for the victim's family.
"I'm glad he's arrested," said sister Rosa Serna. "And I hope they give him a long time, so he knows what he did to this heart here."
Smith has a history of violence that includes arrests for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and battery.
"When he goes to court, I will be there," Rosa Serna said. "I want to see him. I want to see the man that tore a piece of my heart out that I will never get back."
Right now it is unclear how much surveillance video of the incident police have or if they have any angles that captured the confrontation.
The only direct witness of the incident is the driver of the truck Serna was riding with when he was stabbed.
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