facebook-pixel

Bountiful man charged with intentionally running over another man in a Target parking lot

The suspect’s young children were in his truck at the time.

  | Aug. 2, 2021, 10:13 p.m.
| Updated: Aug. 3, 2021, 8:07 p.m.

A Bountiful man has been charged after he allegedly intentionally ran over another man in a Target parking lot in a road-rage incident.

According to the charges, Shawn Paul Smith, 44, ran over the 20-year-old victim outside the Centerville Target on July 26. The victim told police that Smith, who was driving a Ford F-150, sped up behind him and almost struck his Mistubishi Lancer in the parking lot of a nearby Walmart — and that he flipped Smith off.

The victim drove to the Target, and Smith followed him, according to the victim, witnesses and surveillance video. The victim told police he stopped his car; that Smith pulled up alongside him; and that the two of them yelled at each other. The victim said he got out of his car and, as he was walking in front of the pickup, Smith “gunned it” and ran over him. According to police, he was dragged about 72 feet.

The victim remains hospitalized with internal bleeding and multiple broken bones — including ribs and his pelvis — but is expected to survive.

According to the charges, Smith admitted he was involved in a road-rage incident but claimed the victim had followed him into the Target parking lot and threatened him and his 6- and 7-year-old children with a gun. He said he drove away because he felt “fear for the safety of him and his children” and was unaware that he had run over the victim.

However, surveillance video showed Smith following the victim into the Target parking lot, and showed no gun. No gun was found in or near the victim’s car, and witnesses — including Smith’s two children — made no mention of a firearm.

The children told police their father was “driving real fast” in the Walmart parking lot, and another car scratched his truck. They said their father got “real mad,” chased the other car and ”both described their dad running over the driver of the white car,” according to the charges.

Smith has been charged in 2nd District Court with aggravated assault, a second-degree felony; failure to stop at a serious injury accident, a third-degree felony; obstruction of justice a class A misdemeanor; and two counts of committing a violent offense in the presence of a child, class B misdemeanors. He is being held without bail in the Davis County jail.