Police in Milton, Florida arrested a man after he pulled a gun on an Uber driver earlier this week who was dropping his daughter off. Sean Hollonbeck forced the driver out of the car and onto the ground and has since been charged with false imprisonment and aggravated assault with a weapon, WEAR News reports. After pulling him out of the car, Hollonbeck reportedly forced the driver to lie down in the roadway, show his driver’s license so he could photograph it, and allow him to photograph his license plate, his Uber account and the address where he picked up Hollonbeck’s daughter.
As it turned out, the 13-year-old snuck out of the house Saturday night and took an Uber to Pensacola, about 30 minutes away. When he discovered she’d snuck out, he reportedly called both the Santa Rosa County and Escambia County sheriff’s offices, but didn’t get much help from either department. So when she got back home, he made the only logical decision and pulled a gun on the completely innocent Uber driver.
It’s not entirely clear what kind of gun Hollonbeck used. WEAR News said it was a .22 rifle, but Fox 35 Orlando reports it was actually an AR-15. Either one could be deadly at close range, and having any gun pointed in your face is going to make for a bad day.
If you assumed Hollonbeck would have seen the error of his ways after his arrest and being fired from his job, though, you couldn’t possibly be more wrong. He is doubling down, insisting that he did everything right.
“That vehicle was completely unmarked. In my mind this was not good, right?” he told WEAR News. “And everybody knows what’s going on in this country with fentanyl and child trafficking and rape. Terrible stuff.”
He also really wants people to know he’s a veteran, saying, “I served 31 years, I was an Army doctor, I trained as a Navy flight surgeon, I served with the 7th Special Forces Group, I served with the 160th. I served six tours.” That, of course, only makes things worse since he’s not some yokel who’s never been taught the rules of firearm safety or when it’s appropriate to pull a gun on someone.
“The vast majority of this story has not been presented to the public whatsoever. And the vast majority of this is related to parental rights,” he said, later adding, “In this country, you’re innocent until proven guilty. If it goes to trial, I look forward to it because I want to get 12 moms and dads on that jury and judge if what I did was fair — because I called for law enforcement, and I didn’t get them.”
Something tells us the jury will probably see things differently, but it is Florida, so you never know. Maybe they’ll decide it actually isn’t illegal to pull a gun on your daughter’s Uber driver. Crazier things have happened in the past.