Deputies: Pasco driver hit baby stroller after neighbor told him to slow down

PORT RICHEY — While defending his driving skills Monday night, Andrew M. McNeil reversed his truck and ran over a stroller carrying an infant, authorities said.

The baby was unharmed.

The incident happened near Jarman and Spinnaker lanes inside the Park Place Luxury Apartments complex, where both McNeil, 32, and the victim live. According to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, the infant girl's father was pushing the stroller a little after 9 p.m. when he told McNeil to slow down and stop speeding.

"I threw my truck in reverse to slam on my brakes to scare him and get out and fight him," McNeil told a deputy, according to a report. "I didn't try to hit his child."

But he did, authorities said.

The baby's father said McNeil "tried to run him over," the sheriff's report said. "The victim yelled at the defendant to stop because he was with his infant daughter, but the defendant continued to drive in reverse."

"The defendant struck the stroller with the victim inside and caused it to roll underneath the vehicle."

Sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll said the girl is less than a year old and was uninjured.

McNeil, of 9205 Outrigger Road, Apt. 2124 in Port Richey was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. He was released from the Pasco jail Tuesday on $10,000 bail.

McNeil previously spent more than a year in prison for two convictions on the same charge. Records indicate he was arrested in 1997 after he was accused of striking his neighbors with a golf club.