No charges will be filed against the former Saint Francis hospital bus driver who shot a man in an argument on the side of Interstate 95, the state justice department said.

The bus driver and another man engaged in an on-the-road altercation in September before both pulled over near the Airport Road exit ramp to escalate the fight. The bus driver shot the other man after he pulled out a can of pepper spray, state police said.

Prosecutors didn't charge the bus driver because he fired in self-defense in accordance with Delaware law, according to state justice department spokeswoman Julia Lawes.

The Saint Francis Life Paratransit bus driver was driving north on Del. 1 from Pulaski Highway when a man from Bear in a Dodge SUV pulled up alongside both sides of the bus, pointing at the driver with a cellphone, according to state police accounts.

Both continued onto I-95 north and the bus driver signaled for the Dodge to pull over near the Airport Road exit ramp, state police said. Both pulled over and got out.

"Accounts of the incident by the participants and witnesses established that the two participants were in a heated exchange on the side of the interstate when the Dodge Durango driver produced an object from his pocket and sprayed the bus driver in the face with mace, and, nearly simultaneously, the bus driver removed a lawfully possessed and concealed handgun from his pocket and fired a single shot, striking the Durango driver," Lawes said in an email Wednesday morning.

The bus driver remained on the scene and called 911 while offering the man he shot first aid. The Dodge driver, 53, was hospitalized but survived and was later released.

Desmond Chisholm, a resident of Bear, pulled over to the side of I-95 that day to help. He said the bus driver was still there and spoke briefly to Chisholm.

"He said he (the Durango driver) tried to Mace him and he shot him in self-defense. And that's the only thing I heard from him," Desmond Chisholm, a resident of Bear, said.

There were no Saint Francis patients in the bus involved in the incident, which is used to shuttle elderly patients to and from Saint Francis Life Center in Wilmington's Riverfront.

The bus driver lost his job because the health care company's policy forbids employees from carrying firearms, spokeswoman Samantha Raftovich said in September.

Contact Adam Duvernay at (302) 319-1855 or aduvernay@delawareonline.com.

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