21-year-old man shot in leg during road rage melee in Deltona that resulted in gunfire striking a home

VCSO: 17-year-old female driver punched in the face

DELTONA -- A 21-year-old man was shot in the leg after an apparent case of road rage led to a melee and gunfire outside of a Deltona home early this morning, a Volusia County Sheriff's spokesman said.

Several bullets were fired into the home on Galena Terrace, with one of the rounds striking a victim inside the house, agency spokesman Gary Davidson said of the 12:30 a.m. Sunday incident.

The incident started at about 12:30 a.m., when a 17-year-old girl driving to her home at 1432 Galena Terrace said she got behind a slow-moving vehicle on Elkcam Boulevard. The teen pulled up close to the vehicle to see if it would speed up, but instead the driver of the vehicle in front of her started applying the brakes.

"The teen driver said she backed off, but the vehicle continued to go slow and the occupants started yelling at her, Davidson said. "Eventually, she said she lost sight of the vehicle. But when she got to her house, the vehicle pulled up as well. When the teen driver got out of her car to see what the others wanted, she said some males got out of the vehicle and started cursing at her and one of them punched her in the face."

Just then, a fight broke out between the people at the victim's house -- there were at least 17 people there between the ages of 7-23 -- and the people in the suspect vehicle, Davidson said.

"Moments later, the suspect vehicle took off, but then the suspects came back a short while later and tried to get the people in the house to come out and fight," Davidson said. "When no one came out, the suspects left. But then they returned again, and this time they brought more people with them and some weapons -- including baseball bats, shovels and at least one gun that they used to damage approximately six vehicles that were parked at the victim's house."

During the final confrontation, multiple shots rang out, Davidson said, adding the gunfire spray hit vehicles at the scene, while other rounds were fired into the house and lodged in the walls. The teenage girl said she ran into the house to check on the occupants and saw blood on the ground and heard people yelling that someone had been shot and to call 9-1-1.

The Sheriff's Office was contacted about the shooting at 1:43 a.m., and responding deputies began arriving three minutes later. The shooting victim, Antonio Tirado, was driven by a relative of one of the persons at the house to Florida Hospital Fish Memorial in Orange City for medical treatment.

"The suspects haven't been located," Davidson said.