Gunman sentenced to 3 years for wounding driver who was with family on Arlington road
A Grand Prairie man who shot a driver in the head during a 2018 road rage dispute has been sentenced to three years in prison, according to court records.
Andrew Cantu, 30, was sentenced on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, more than a year after he wounded the driver on an Arlington highway, according to Tarrant County criminal court records.
The driver’s wife, who screamed “Stop!” at Cantu because there were children in the family’s vehicle, was not injured. The two kids also escaped injury in the Oct. 22, 2018 shooting.
Arlington police said the then 33-year-old victim was driving southbound on Texas 360 when he attempted to merge onto the westbound lanes of Interstate 20 just after 8 p.m.As he began driving in the right-hand lane, the suspect’s vehicle sideswiped him as it passed the victim on the outside shoulder, according to an arrest warrant obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 2019.
The two vehicles stopped.
Cantu is accused of firing a shot toward the other motorist, grazing his head, after the man had pulled over to exchange insurance information, Arlington police said.
After the shooting, Cantu got back in his white BMW and drove home, the warrant states.
Within days after the shooting, Arlington detectives received anonymous tips identifying Cantu as the suspect, according to the warrant.
Cantu quit his job just days after the shooting and later drove his car to Houston, where his mother sold it for him, according to the warrant. He then traveled to Mexico, telling relatives he went there to visit his father.
Cantu surrendered to Arlington police in March 2019, ending a four-month search for the suspect.
