Cops: After dispute with taxi driver, Flanders man fired gun

A dispute between a taxi driver, the driver’s occupants and Flanders man turned violent on Osborne Avenue late Monday, after the man allegedly fired a gun while driving away from the argument, according to a Riverhead Town police press release.

That man was arrested soon after the incident and charged with felony weapons possession and reckless endangerment, police said.

Police were called to the area just after 10 p.m. for a report of a dispute between a man in a white SUV and a cab driver and the occupants of the taxi, police said. While the SUV was leaving, “several gunshots” were fired from the vehicle, police said.

Police found an SUV matching a description of the suspect’s vehicle and arrested the driver, 24-year-old Eric Ross.

An investigation led police to find a loaded Colt .45 caliber handgun in the vehicle. Mr. Ross was arrested and processed at Riverhead PD headquarters on charges of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, a felony, reckless endangerment and aggravated unlicensed driving for operating a vehicle with a suspended license, according to a police report. 

Mr. Ross was arraigned in Riverhead justice court Tuesday and held in the Suffolk County jail on $10,000 bail, police said.