Miami-area man fires into car, sending bullet into driver’s headrest, police say

A Cutler Bay man shot out of his pickup truck window at another driver, lodging a bullet in the back of the driver’s headrest during a Sunday night road rage incident, according to the sheriff’s office.

Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the shooting shortly after 11 p.m. in the area of Southwest 184th Street and Southwest 117th Avenue, an arrest affidavit said.

Deputies saw a bullet hole through the back windshield, a bullet inside the driver’s headrest and a spent casing on the road, according to the affidavit. Deputies did not identify the car or the driver.

The driver told deputies he was headed east on Southwest 184th Street when a man, who was driving a white 2022 Ford F-150, started flashing his lights and trying to pass him.

As the pickup-truck driver tried to pass the man’s car on his right side, he slowed down and fired one round into his car, police said.

Deputies later identified the driver through the truck’s license plate and went to the home of 37-year-old Cristopher Portillo.

Portillo “spontaneously stated he had been involved in a road rage incident, which resulted in him discharging his firearm and striking the other vehicle,” the affidavit said.

He told deputies a driver in a blue sports car started repeatedly hitting his breaks. Portillo said he tried to pass in the right lane when the other driver lowered his passenger-side window and flashed what appeared to be a black gun.

Portillo said he was in fear, slowed down his truck, armed himself and discharged one round, the affidavit said.

He was arrested around 4 a.m. Monday and taken to the Miami-Dade Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where he was being held on a $7,500 bond, jail records show. Portillo is facing one count of shooting a deadly missile.