An alleged case of road rage has led to a dozen charges being filed against a New Castle man accused of firing a shot into a car carrying three people, including a five-year-old girl.

Forty-year-old Joseph Virella Acevedo remains jailed on a $300,000 bond after Shenango Township Police arrested him at his place of work in Butler County on Friday.

Investigators believe Virella Acevedo stopped his Kia Soul at U.S. 422 and Route 388 in Shenango Township and fired a shot into the wheel of another car stopped at the intersection.

A woman was driving the other car with a male in the front passenger seat and a 5-year-old girl in the back seat.

The woman told police that the Kia Soul, which had three passengers, drove away after the shot was fired.

Police used a license plate reader to identify the suspect’s car and traced it to a Butler County business.

Virella Acevedo claims that one of the passengers in his car confronted the passenger in the other car, which had cut him off earlier.

Alleging that the man in the other car had pulled a knife, Virella Acevedo told police he fired the shot into the ground in self-defense.

Virella Acevedo was arraigned on three counts of attempted criminal homicide, six counts of attempted aggravated assault, and three counts of recklessly endangering another person.

Another court hearing for Virella Acevedo is scheduled for Thursday.