South Phila. man charged in road-rage shooting

Police have charged a South Philadelphia man, a registered sex offender under Megan's law, in Saturday night's road-rage incident in which a vehicle's window was shot out.

Police said Shaffiat Ali, 31, of the 1400 block of South 12th Street, was charged with aggravated assault and related offenses. He was accused of using a BB gun to shoot at a car with two women and a 4-year-old girl in the backseat about 7:20 p.m. on the 400 block of South Broad Street.

The 28-year-old driver told police that the incident began on the 500 block of Lombard Street when a red Mitsubishi Eclipse began to follow her vehicle, and the man behind the wheel of the Eclipse began blowing the horn and hanging out the driver's side window.

When the woman turned onto Broad, she heard two gunshots and her rear window breaking, police said. Her 20-year-old passenger saw Ali point a gun at their vehicle before driving off.

Police found Ali's Eclipse, which matched the description of the road-rage vehicle but had its license plate removed, in the 800 block of Fernon Street on Tuesday, and arrested him later.

A search of the Pennsylvania Megan's law website showed that Ali has been a registered sex offender since 2010 in connection with a second-degree rape conviction in New York State.