Risk protection order issued for man accused of I-75 road rage shooting

A man accused of a violent road rage shooting on I-75 now has a risk protection order against him.

Thomas Yanoti III is accused of shooting at another man in Collier County and faces several charges including attempted second-degree murder.

With the risk protection order filed against him he’s not allowed to legally buy any guns or ammunition.

Florida’s red flag law says Yanoti cannot own any type of firearm or ammo and he can’t have a license to conceal and carry.

According to a Cape Coral Police report, the suspected road rage shooter never had a concealed weapons license in the first place.

Now he’s in Collier County jail and one neighbor said she hopes he stays there.

Christine Cohen, Yanoti’s neighbor said, “on the Fourth of July everybody was doing fireworks and everybody was kind of talking about it.”

Cohen is talking about Yanoti getting arrested for shooting up a black Mercedes on the ramp of I-75.

“I’m so glad everybody lived,” Cohen said.

Cohen said she couldn’t believe that the Collier County Sheriff’s Office said ‘a man who lived down the street from her got into a fender bender, grabbed his gun, and opened fire.’

“That is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” Cohen said.

But Cohen never knew police investigated Yanoti at least three other times for road rage.

In 2015, Yanoti was investigated for refusing to let another driver pass him on Skyline Boulevard and then stopping in the middle of the road to intentionally irritate the driver, according to police.

“Skyline Boulevard like that’s literally right there. We walk, I walk to the Dollar Store with my son all the time,” Cohen said.

Fast forward to 2017 detectives looked into a report that Yanoti drove a woman off of the road and then pulled into a driveway. When the woman confronted him the woman claimed Yanoti called her a Democrat then threatened to kill her and her mother and showed a gun, according to reports.

“That’s absolutely insane,” Cohen said.

In 2019 police looked at Yanoti again after a driver said Yanoti cut them off along Veterans Memorial Parkway and then waved a black object. Police never confirmed whether it was a gun, according to reports.

“Oh my God, he needs to get his license taken away also if he ever does get out of jail,” Cohen said.

Yanoti is in Collier County jail and being held on a $1.5 million bond.

Police have already seized his seven guns and ammo.