PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — A former assistant U.S. attorney was taken into custody Tuesday after authorities said he stabbed a man following a three-vehicle crash on the Howard Frankland Bridge.

The incident closed portions of the bridge for three hours.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the series of events leading to the crash happened just before 9:30 a.m. when a sedan driven by a 35-year-old Tampa man stopped in the southbound lanes, heading into Pinellas, on the bridge.

Troopers said the man had stopped in the travel lanes and was slumped over inside his vehicle for unknown reasons.

That’s when a couple from Tampa stopped and exited their vehicle to help the man. When the 40-year-old driver of the second car couldn’t access the first vehicle, he retrieved an item to break the window of the vehicle to help the man.

But before he could get inside, the man slumped over, woke up and drove forward, colliding with the other man’s vehicle. He then backed up and tried to drive around the second car. As he did, he collided with a third vehicle that was passing by.

The 38-year-old driver of the third vehicle, a Tampa man, stopped and got out of his vehicle and then broke the window of the first car and began stabbing the 35-year-old man with a pocket knife, troopers said.

Officials said the couple tried to stop the attack before fleeing back to their car when the armed man tried to attack them.

A passing St. Petersburg police officer stopped and detained the 38-year-old man. He also rendered aid to the injured driver, who suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Meanwhile, the attacker, who police identified as Patrick Douglas Scruggs, was arrested and charged with aggravated battery, aggravated assault and burglary of an occupied convenience.

Scruggs previously spent about a decade working in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa. Most recently, he worked at a private firm in Atlanta.