Captain Kyle Brayer set up a program for fellow Marine Corps veterans with health problems
An off-duty fire captain and Marine veteran has died after being shot in the head in a road rage incident.
Captain Kyle Brayer, 34, was riding in a golf cart taxi cab early with friends on at around 2.30am on Saturday morning when he was involved in altercation with Hezron Parks in the bar district of Scottsdale, Arizona.
Parks admitted shooting the Iraq war veteran after being thrown out of clubs in the city, it was reported.
Police said the 21-year-old was bumping the golf cart in his red Scion coupe and Brayer was facing backwards when the incident unfolded.
According to ABC15, court documents say Parks was driving home from night out in clubs in Scottsdale.
He got into a fight with a bouncer at one club, was denied entry to another and left a third club because he did not like his drink.
While driving home, Parks said he encountered a group of people were in a golf cart taxi cab, some sitting in rear-facing seats.
‘Gunman’: The 21-year-old was driving home after being thrown out of a club in Scottsdale, Arizona
The suspect claimed said the men on the cart were saying unknown things to him and alleged Brayer at one point kicked the hood of his car
Brayer got off of the golf cart and approached his vehicle without saying anything, and with empty hands up in the air, Parks said.
Feeling threatened when Brayer moved towards him, Parks said he grabbed a Smith and Wesson .40-caliber handgun from the center console, pointed it at him and pulled the trigger.
Hezron Parks told police he didn’t realize there was a bullet in the chamber when he fired the gun
Documents state that Parks didn’t know a round was in the chamber ‘because he did not typically keep one there’.
Parks then fled the scene in his vehicle and admitted to striking several other vehicles in the process. He turned himself 10 hours later following media reports police were hunting for him.
He has now been charged with second-degree murder an court paperwork shows he is being held on $300,000 cash bond.
A friend of Captain Brayer, Melissa Locklar, said: ‘He was not the type to go looking for a fight.’
Scottsdale Police Department spokesman Ben Hoster said: ‘We don’t know the motive and we don’t know what preceded it other than the red car was striking the golf cart.
Police issued a picture of the red Scion coupe that was bumping the golf cart carrying Brayer and his friends
‘We know that this was very erratic behavior on the roadway leading up to the shooting.’
Leading the tributes was to the dead man was Tempe fire Chief Greg Ruiz who told Fox 10: ‘It’s a fire chief’s nightmare, you don’t want to lose any member, whether it’s in the line of duty or off-duty, they’re a family member.’
Chief Ruiz described the fire captain, who was also a fitness entrepreneur, as an ‘an exceptional man’ who insisted on calling him ‘chief’ adding: ‘That’s the Marine in him.’
In a message on their Facebook page, Glendale Firefighters association, also paid tribute to Captain Brayer.
The Arizona State University graduate joined the Marine Corps after 9/11 and served for nine months in Iraq
‘It’s with great sadness that we announce the passing of Tempe Fire Medical Captain Kyle Brayer a ten year veteran,’ read the message.
‘Kyle was also a United States Marines veteran and a great friend to many. He was taken from us too soon by a senseless act of random violence.
‘Kyle’s family, friends and the Tempe Fire Medical Department will be in our thoughts and prayer. God Speed Brother Brayer.’
Brayer, a graduate of Arizon State University, joined the Marine Corps in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
He served in Iraq for nine months and also did humanitarian work in the Philippines.
In 2016, he helped launch a program that identified veterans with severe health problems and provided them with in-home medical care.