OKEECHOBEE — A local construction worker was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after reportedly trying to run over people in a parking lot.

According to Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Deputy Robert Murtagh’s report, he was dispatched to Backwoods Billiards Feb. 6 just before midnight after a call reporting a disturbance. The caller told him a man threatened to drive his vehicle through the establishment and run over people.

When he arrived, he found the proprietor and his wife along with several others standing beside a white Ford truck. A man, later identified as Shawn Juntunen, 32, was sitting on the ground near the driver’s door and was bleeding from a head wound and smelled strongly of alcohol. The owner told Murtagh the man had been asked to leave the establishment earlier but had come back.

Murtagh called for EMS and asked Juntunen what happened. Juntunen reportedly told him he was driving the truck until “they yanked me out of it and did this to me. They disrespected me. They ganged up on me. I did nothing wrong. They told me I had to leave. I came back.”

Witnesses claim Juntunen used the truck to accelerate towards cars and people in the parking lot, causing them to have to take evasive actions.

Juntunen was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill, DUI, disorderly conduct and trespass of an occupied structure. Bond was set at $6,500.