Lufkin man arrested for murder after speeding dispute

LUFKIN — A Lufkin man has been arrested for murder after allegedly fatally shooting a man during a speeding dispute on Wednesday night, an on-view arrest complaint from the Angelina County Sheriff’s Office reveals. According to our news partner KETK, an Angelina County Sheriff’s Office deputy responded to a call from a man identified as Phillip Hunter Gersbach of Lufkin, who told dispatch that he had shot someone at around 11:15 p.m. on Wednesday. The deputy noticed an unresponsive man on the ground and performed CPR on the victim while Gersbach remained near the patrol unit.

Once the second deputy arrived, they took over chest compressions on the victim while the first deputy took the suspect into custody. The deputy put the suspect in the back seat of her patrol unit to deescalate the situation as a woman at the scene was “irate and hostile.” MS arrived on the scene and declared the man dead at 11:37 p.m. after no pulse could be found. The arrest document states that Gersbach was then read his Miranda rights and interviewed about what happened.

In body camera footage described in Gersbach’s arrest complaint, Gersbach stated that he was driving home when a woman stopped him for driving too fast past her home. A man then came up behind her and asked Gersach not to yell at his wife.

Gersbach reportedly stated that he saw the man move something behind his back before pointing it behind Gersbach’s headrest and saying he’d shoot.

Gersbach said he felt threatened and shot the victim before he could shoot him through the headrest, according to the arrest document. The woman who waved Gersbach down was also interviewed and said the truck had been driving by their home fast multiple times when the victim asked her to stop the truck.

The woman explained in the arrest document that they were in an altercation where Gersbach allegedly called kept calling her a “b*tch” when the victim approached and said “I’ll f**cking shoot your *ss” to Gersbach several times. According to the woman, Gersbach shot the victim multiple times while sitting in the vehicle before he got out and shot him “several more times.”

Angelina County Sheriff’s Office investigators then arrived to collect evidence from the scene and Gersbach’s clothes. Gersbach was arrested for murder and booked into the Angelina County Jail, where he was released on Thursday after posting a $15,000 bond.