A horrific road rage shooting in the tiny community of Beverly Hills, Florida left a 44-year-old dad dead last Thursday; slain as his wife, daughter, and grandson, all passengers in the landscaping truck he drove, watched him die. And 911 recordings reveal that the wife of the man accused of the slaying, 51-year-old Robert Doyle, pleaded with her husband not to shoot.

In fact, while Doyle was on the phone with a 911 operator and during the call, he allegedly threatened to use his gun on the other driver, Candelario Gonzalez. Both men called 911 after what police termed “an aggressive driving incident,” but it was Doyle who is heard on the recordings saying that he had his gun out, and the weapon was “cocked and loaded.”

According to a report by the St. Petersburg-based cable news outlet Bay News 9, Doyle told a 911 operator that Gonzalez was following him home and that when they got there, he planned to shoot the man in the head.

Gonzalez, in his call with the 911 operator, said that Doyle was “driving like an idiot.” He told the operator that he planned to follow Doyle home and get his identification information, but the 911 operator told him to go home. Gonzalez’s wife was also heard in the calls telling her husband to simply go home.

But Gonzalez did not go home as he apparently did not realize the full extent of the danger posed by Doyle.

When the two vehicles pulled up in front of Doyle’s home, according to police and witness accounts, Gonzalez got out of his truck — and Doyle then fired once, then pausing. He then fired a second time, paused again, and fired three more shots in quick succession, according to the Bay News 9 account.

But Doyle was not finished yet. He then ordered Gonzalez’s family, who had just watched the husband and father killed before their eyes, to get out of the car and lie on the ground. He then held them hostage at gunpoint until police arrived.

Just before Doyle fired the fatal shots, his wife was heard yelling at him, “Don’t shoot! I’ve got 911 on the phone!”

While Doyle told police that he believed he was defending his wife from Gonzalez by shooting him, Citrus County Sheriff’s Captain David DeCarlo said that nothing in the 911 recordings appears to indicate that Doyle or his wife were ever in danger from Gonzalez.

“Between the evidence that was found on scene, couple that with the 911 calls, we felt comfortable that Mr. Doyle was the primary aggressor,” DeCarlo said.

Doyle’s wife told a 911 operator that her husband shot Gonzalez, claiming “the guy kept charging at him.”

The incident bears similarities to a Michigan incident last September when a father approached the car of another driver who has cut him off to ask, “What’s your problem?” But the other driver shot him dead.

Robert Doyle, who later claimed that Gonzalez had tried to “brake check” him, has a legal weapons permit that allows him to carry a loaded gun in his car. He was charged with second-degree murder for the deadly road rage killing but released on $60,000 bond. Meanwhile, the family of Candelario Gonzalez has planned his funeral for Friday at 11 a.m.

[Images: Citrus County Sheriff’s Office, WATE News]