Investigators say the suspect also fought deputies after the roadside beating near Winter Garden.
WINTER GARDEN, FL — A Central Florida man who pulled over to help after seeing a crashed car on State Road 429 said he was beaten, threatened and left with serious injuries in a sudden roadside attack Monday morning near the Seidel Road exit.
Authorities identified the accused attacker as Daniel Coman, 44, who was later booked into the Orange County jail on charges that include battery, battery on a law enforcement officer, assault on a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer with violence and criminal mischief. The victim, Hans Hamilton, said he stopped because he thought a driver needed help after a crash. Instead, he said, he was ambushed. The case has drawn attention because video from Hamilton’s Tesla recorded much of the attack and because Hamilton says the beating left him with broken ribs, a concussion and a brain bleed.
Hamilton said he was driving on State Road 429 toward Apopka shortly after 9 a.m. Monday when he spotted a white Lexus against the guardrail in the median near Seidel Road. He said he also saw a man lying on the grass beside the car and believed he had come upon a wreck with an injured driver. Hamilton pulled over, got out and moved toward the scene. What happened next, according to Hamilton and the arrest affidavit described in local reports, unfolded in seconds. The man later identified as Coman rushed toward Hamilton’s Tesla, jumped onto the hood, smashed the windshield and then attacked Hamilton on the ground. “Any normal person would have done what I did,” Hamilton said in one television interview. “At the moment, I was just thinking I’ve got to help this person.”
Investigators say the attack was not a brief scuffle. According to the arrest report described by local outlets, Coman struck Hamilton at least 15 times. Hamilton told reporters the attacker repeatedly said, “I’m going to kill you,” while punching and kicking him in the head, face, neck and back. He said he believed he was fighting for his life. Video from Hamilton’s car, aired by Orlando-area stations, appears to show the suspect on top of the vehicle and then on top of Hamilton during the assault. Hamilton said he finally broke free and fought back by striking Coman in the throat. Another motorist, identified in one report as Winston Johnson, stopped after seeing the beating and tried to help. Hamilton later told reporters that even after the attack ended, the fear did not. He said he remains terrified and does not believe the danger he faced on the shoulder of the expressway has been fully reflected in the charges so far.
The roadside violence also appears to have been part of a larger chain of events that morning. An arrest affidavit cited by local reporting says Coman had been involved in another hit-and-run crash about two miles south of the attack scene before Hamilton stopped. The affidavit also said he was a suspect in a similar criminal mischief incident earlier that same morning. Those details have raised fresh questions about what happened before the Lexus reached the guardrail and whether investigators may add counts later as they sort through the earlier incidents. For now, many of those facts remain unclear in public records. Authorities have not publicly detailed a motive, and the available reports do not explain whether Coman was impaired, in medical distress or experiencing some other crisis before the assault. What is clear is that investigators say Hamilton encountered a scene that looked like a crash emergency, and the stop turned violent almost at once.
When a deputy arrived just before 10 a.m. after a reported crash in the northbound lanes, the confrontation was still not over. The arrest affidavit says Coman acted in an angry, aggressive way toward the responding officer, ignored commands to stay back and moved as if he were going to strike the deputy. The deputy was eventually able to get him to the ground, but the report says Coman kept resisting as officers tried to handcuff him. Hamilton and another bystander helped hold him down, according to the affidavit. The report further says that after officers moved him toward a patrol vehicle, Coman violently resisted again and grabbed a deputy in the groin. Both Hamilton and Coman were taken to a hospital. During an initial court appearance that local media reported Coman did not attend because he was in the hospital, Judge Barbara Leach set bond at $5,000 and ordered that he have no contact with Hamilton.
The attack left visible and costly damage. Hamilton said he suffered four broken ribs, a concussion, multiple contusions and a brain bleed. He also said his Tesla may be totaled after the windshield, hood and roof were damaged in the attack. In interviews, Hamilton said he expects to owe $7,500 for medical costs and another $1,500 tied to the car, figures that he said could strain his family badly. Yet his public comments have mixed anger, fear and disbelief with a stubborn defense of the instinct that led him to stop. “I don’t want to lose my humanity,” he told one station. “We’re put on this earth to help each other.” At the same time, he has said he believes prosecutors should consider an attempted murder charge because, in his view, the attack showed an intent to kill. Prosecutors had not publicly announced any upgraded charges by Friday.
The case now stands at an early but closely watched stage. Coman remains accused in the roadside beating and in the confrontation with deputies, while investigators also continue to examine the reported earlier hit-and-run and other possible related conduct from that morning. Hamilton has gone public with his account and with the injuries he says he is still recovering from several days later. The next milestone is likely to come in court as prosecutors review the evidence, including the Tesla video, the arrest affidavit and any additional crash findings from investigators.
Author note: Last updated April 4, 2026.