The evidence was recovered from an SUV after officers detained three people following a reported road rage shooting.
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Fort Myers police recovered a handgun, suspected cocaine, marijuana, a digital scale and small plastic baggies while investigating a road rage confrontation that led to two arrests, according to an arrest report.
The items were found as officers inventoried a black Nissan Pathfinder before it was towed. Police said field tests indicated the suspected substances tested positive for cocaine and marijuana. The discovery led to controlled-substance charges against 31-year-old Christian Rivas, who also was accused of firing from the SUV during the confrontation.
Police arrested Rivas on charges of discharging a firearm from a vehicle, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and three counts of possession of a controlled substance. The Nissan’s driver, 23-year-old Rogelio Hernandez Jr., was charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving property damage.
The charges followed an investigation that began about 1:18 a.m., when officers received a report of gunfire directed toward a silver Mercedes near Colonial Boulevard. Officers located the Nissan at a RaceTrac gas station on Cleveland Avenue and detained Hernandez, Rivas and another passenger. The third person was later released.
The Mercedes driver told officers that the dispute began while he was making a food delivery near Six Mile Cypress Parkway. He reported encountering the Nissan traveling the wrong way through an apartment complex before a verbal confrontation developed between the vehicles’ occupants.
According to the driver’s account, the dispute continued onto Challenger Boulevard, where the Nissan’s occupants challenged him to fight. He said he stopped briefly but left after the group became aggressive.
Police said the Nissan then struck the Mercedes and drove away. The Mercedes driver followed in an attempt to collect identifying information for law enforcement. During that pursuit, the driver reported seeing a passenger fire two shots from the Nissan. The vehicles continued through several intersections and made contact more than once, according to the report.
Investigators said the Mercedes driver identified Rivas as the alleged shooter during a police identification procedure. The Nissan’s occupants also acknowledged after receiving Miranda warnings that Rivas fired the weapon, the report said, although they maintained that he aimed toward the ground.
Police did not report that anyone was wounded. Officers said the physical damage to the vehicles was consistent with multiple collisions, but the report did not provide a total estimate of the property damage.
The small baggies and scale were described in the report as items commonly associated with drug distribution. However, the listed allegations against Rivas were possession charges, and the report did not identify a trafficking or distribution charge. The defendants are presumed innocent unless proved guilty in court.
Rivas and Hernandez were booked into the Lee County Jail. Information about court dates, bond decisions or attorneys representing them was not immediately available in the supplied records.
Author note: Last updated July 19, 2026.