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Road Rager tries to run me off the road

Prophet

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 29, 2008
Messages
544
Location
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
The following incident happened to me about 3 hours ago.

Im heading to pick up some groceries at the Waterfront in Homestead and im taking I-376 to the exit to get there. This dark SUV is veering a little in the passing lane and im on the exit lane with the middle lane open. As our vehicles get close he swerves through 2 lanes of traffic and nearly takes out my front end. I honk the horn to let him know he nearly hit me and he responds by JAMMING his breaks trying to have me rear end him. I slow enough to avoid a crash and signal over and move around him. As I'm passing his windows down and hes Mother F'ing me and flippin me off and telling me to pull over. I simply continue to drive to my exit.

After I get off at the Squirrel Hill/Homestead exit I head toward the waterfront at which point the road goes from 2 lanes to 1. At this point the guy in the SUV has followed me, drops the hammer on the gas right at the choke point and pulls in front of me and schreeches to a stop. I jam my brakes, an enterprise truck swerves to the shoulder to miss rear ending me and the Road Rager hops out of his SUV and says "we're gonna do this" and mentions he has a gun and has his hands behind his back.

I don't wait for him to reveal what mystery is behind him, I pull out my .45, point it squarely at his chest and tell him to get back in his truck and drive away. He starts blathering on about how if I shoot him he is going to own me and how he has all these witnesses. This guy was obviously drunk. While keeping my eyes on the guy I ask the driver of the Enterprise truck to kindly call the police.

The SUV guy doesn't make any movements toward me, which in truth probably saved his life but he kept trying to distract me. Telling me to show the people who are honking that I have a gun on him, or he would point and say look, I have a witness over there. I kept my eyes on him and my 1911 on center mass. He keeps chattering on for what seems like an eternity and he says he can't wait for the cops to show up because I'M the bad guy. He was excited all right, till the sirens actually could be heard. He ran to his truck, i kept a bead on him in case he was going to make a move but he just high tailed it out of there as fast as he could.

Once the threat left, I holstered my pistol and waited for the sirens to arrive. The first officer on the scene asked me where the guy went, I gave him a quick description and the direction he went. There was another officer there who was with his family who called 911. Apparently a lot of people called 911 because the bottle neck caused a traffic jam in my lane and me holding this guy off was clearly visable to cars in the other lane. Of course, a lot of calls by people who didn't know any better said, "Road rage and a guy has a gun", so the police thought it was on me but quickly realized i was the victim.

Long story short, about 6 officers or so show up, I give a statement, they take down my information and the info of some of the witnesses, give me back my ID and LTCF, tell me to stay safe and send me on my way. They also asked if I wanted to pursue any charges on the guy. I said not really, but he's pretty drunk so if you catch him you have that.

A side note, the first officer on the scene and I had met a couple years ago when he responded to a MWAG call that was placed on me in Oakland. He asked if I remembered him and I did. Small world. He said they refer to me as the OC guy.

I gave my dad a call after i finished my grocery shopping because i was in a weird place and wanted to talk it out a little just to get it off my chest. Being so close to taking a man's life is draining. He told me to be thankful for the following:

1. The jackass didn't make me crash my buddies car.
2. He didn't get the drop on me with his gun and kill me.
3. I didn't have to take the life of a drunken *******.

Amen dad...amen.
 

GF

Regular Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2009
Messages
138
Location
Peoria, AZ, ,
Wow. I'm glad you're okay. I'm kinda glad the cops didn't get there when you still had your firearm out. I'm sure with situations like that police will not be positive with who is the victim and who is the suspect, especially when there is a weapon visible. I'm not really sure how I would have handled that to be honest with you. I have never drawn on anyone, and I really hope that I never have to.
 

eye95

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 6, 2010
Messages
13,524
Location
Fairborn, Ohio, USA
The following incident happened to me about 3 hours ago.

Im heading to pick up some groceries at the Waterfront in Homestead and im taking I-376 to the exit to get there. This dark SUV is veering a little in the passing lane and im on the exit lane with the middle lane open. As our vehicles get close he swerves through 2 lanes of traffic and nearly takes out my front end. I honk the horn to let him know he nearly hit me and he responds by JAMMING his breaks trying to have me rear end him. I slow enough to avoid a crash and signal over and move around him. As I'm passing his windows down and hes Mother F'ing me and flippin me off and telling me to pull over. I simply continue to drive to my exit.

After I get off at the Squirrel Hill/Homestead exit I head toward the waterfront at which point the road goes from 2 lanes to 1. At this point the guy in the SUV has followed me, drops the hammer on the gas right at the choke point and pulls in front of me and schreeches to a stop. I jam my brakes, an enterprise truck swerves to the shoulder to miss rear ending me and the Road Rager hops out of his SUV and says "we're gonna do this" and mentions he has a gun and has his hands behind his back.

I don't wait for him to reveal what mystery is behind him, I pull out my .45, point it squarely at his chest and tell him to get back in his truck and drive away. He starts blathering on about how if I shoot him he is going to own me and how he has all these witnesses. This guy was obviously drunk. While keeping my eyes on the guy I ask the driver of the Enterprise truck to kindly call the police.

The SUV guy doesn't make any movements toward me, which in truth probably saved his life but he kept trying to distract me. Telling me to show the people who are honking that I have a gun on him, or he would point and say look, I have a witness over there. I kept my eyes on him and my 1911 on center mass. He keeps chattering on for what seems like an eternity and he says he can't wait for the cops to show up because I'M the bad guy. He was excited all right, till the sirens actually could be heard. He ran to his truck, i kept a bead on him in case he was going to make a move but he just high tailed it out of there as fast as he could.

Once the threat left, I holstered my pistol and waited for the sirens to arrive. The first officer on the scene asked me where the guy went, I gave him a quick description and the direction he went. There was another officer there who was with his family who called 911. Apparently a lot of people called 911 because the bottle neck caused a traffic jam in my lane and me holding this guy off was clearly visable to cars in the other lane. Of course, a lot of calls by people who didn't know any better said, "Road rage and a guy has a gun", so the police thought it was on me but quickly realized i was the victim.

Long story short, about 6 officers or so show up, I give a statement, they take down my information and the info of some of the witnesses, give me back my ID and LTCF, tell me to stay safe and send me on my way. They also asked if I wanted to pursue any charges on the guy. I said not really, but he's pretty drunk so if you catch him you have that.

A side note, the first officer on the scene and I had met a couple years ago when he responded to a MWAG call that was placed on me in Oakland. He asked if I remembered him and I did. Small world. He said they refer to me as the OC guy.

I gave my dad a call after i finished my grocery shopping because i was in a weird place and wanted to talk it out a little just to get it off my chest. Being so close to taking a man's life is draining. He told me to be thankful for the following:

1. The jackass didn't make me crash my buddies car.
2. He didn't get the drop on me with his gun and kill me.
3. I didn't have to take the life of a drunken *******.

Amen dad...amen.

No rational person goads a man with a gun. This guy was either nuts or drunker than you thought!

He demonstrated consciousness of guilt by fleeing upon hearing the sirens. You demonstrated a lack of such by asking for the police to be called and remaining on the scene until they got there.

I think you had ample reason to rationally fear for your life. If a man, in the heat of anger, announces he has a gun (even if it turns out later that he does not) and then reaches to where that gun might be, it is absolutely reasonable to point your firearm at him. If his hand suddenly started to come from behind, I'd've dropped him.

You describe a situation in which you maintained your cool in the face of a nut-job acting irrationally and dangerously.
 

OldCurlyWolf

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2010
Messages
907
Location
Oklahoma
The following incident happened to me about 3 hours ago.

Im heading to pick up some groceries at the Waterfront in Homestead and im taking I-376 to the exit to get there. This dark SUV is veering a little in the passing lane and im on the exit lane with the middle lane open. As our vehicles get close he swerves through 2 lanes of traffic and nearly takes out my front end. I honk the horn to let him know he nearly hit me and he responds by JAMMING his breaks trying to have me rear end him. I slow enough to avoid a crash and signal over and move around him. As I'm passing his windows down and hes Mother F'ing me and flippin me off and telling me to pull over. I simply continue to drive to my exit.

After I get off at the Squirrel Hill/Homestead exit I head toward the waterfront at which point the road goes from 2 lanes to 1. At this point the guy in the SUV has followed me, drops the hammer on the gas right at the choke point and pulls in front of me and schreeches to a stop. I jam my brakes, an enterprise truck swerves to the shoulder to miss rear ending me and the Road Rager hops out of his SUV and says "we're gonna do this" and mentions he has a gun and has his hands behind his back.

I don't wait for him to reveal what mystery is behind him, I pull out my .45, point it squarely at his chest and tell him to get back in his truck and drive away. He starts blathering on about how if I shoot him he is going to own me and how he has all these witnesses. This guy was obviously drunk. While keeping my eyes on the guy I ask the driver of the Enterprise truck to kindly call the police.

The SUV guy doesn't make any movements toward me, which in truth probably saved his life but he kept trying to distract me. Telling me to show the people who are honking that I have a gun on him, or he would point and say look, I have a witness over there. I kept my eyes on him and my 1911 on center mass. He keeps chattering on for what seems like an eternity and he says he can't wait for the cops to show up because I'M the bad guy. He was excited all right, till the sirens actually could be heard. He ran to his truck, i kept a bead on him in case he was going to make a move but he just high tailed it out of there as fast as he could.

Once the threat left, I holstered my pistol and waited for the sirens to arrive. The first officer on the scene asked me where the guy went, I gave him a quick description and the direction he went. There was another officer there who was with his family who called 911. Apparently a lot of people called 911 because the bottle neck caused a traffic jam in my lane and me holding this guy off was clearly visable to cars in the other lane. Of course, a lot of calls by people who didn't know any better said, "Road rage and a guy has a gun", so the police thought it was on me but quickly realized i was the victim.

Long story short, about 6 officers or so show up, I give a statement, they take down my information and the info of some of the witnesses, give me back my ID and LTCF, tell me to stay safe and send me on my way. They also asked if I wanted to pursue any charges on the guy. I said not really, but he's pretty drunk so if you catch him you have that.

A side note, the first officer on the scene and I had met a couple years ago when he responded to a MWAG call that was placed on me in Oakland. He asked if I remembered him and I did. Small world. He said they refer to me as the OC guy.

I gave my dad a call after i finished my grocery shopping because i was in a weird place and wanted to talk it out a little just to get it off my chest. Being so close to taking a man's life is draining. He told me to be thankful for the following:

1. The jackass didn't make me crash my buddies car.
2. He didn't get the drop on me with his gun and kill me.
3. I didn't have to take the life of a drunken *******.

Amen dad...amen.

1, 2, and 3. ALL GOOD THINGS.

:cool:
 

Badger Johnson

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2011
Messages
1,213
Location
USA
I've never had a road rager target me, but I have had people who merge onto a three lane road and go all the way across to the other exit lane and nearly hit me. I said 'gee I must be invisible'. They used no indicators, didn't look in their mirrors, just drove as though they were the only one on the highway. it's a mystery to me why they do that. I'm always checking and double checking.

I frequently have people jump into the right turn lane and try to scoot past me and run up to the light at 45mph and then sit there as though it's a race, and people who zoom around me with 50 feet to go and dive into the turn lane as well. They just can't stand to have one car in front of them.

I also have people honk at me when I've indicated at least 5 blinks and there is about three car lengths between us. i figure if they have time to lean on the horn they have time to slow down and let me in. In fact even if they floored it they couldn't impact me, so why beep? Often they're going uphill behind me making it just impossible to run into me with all that space. I'm in a small town (Central Va) too. It's not like we're talking the Beltway in Wash. DC.

To me, it's always a bad idea to try to speed up and shut someone out, because you run the risk of rear-ending the guy in front of you. I just back way off and let them play their games without my participation.

Stay safe - glad you didn't have to shoot anyone.
 
Last edited:

cyras21

Regular Member
Joined
Apr 5, 2007
Messages
152
Location
Stepehens City, VA
I've had more then my fair share of idiot drivers trying to run me off the road. This was before I started carrying. Since the last instance, I now have a dash cam mounted. It captured video and audio and is great if stopped for a traffic violation. $80, great investment!
 

JohnH

Regular Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2008
Messages
87
Location
, ,
I had a drunk show up on my doorstep some years ago. I answered with my 1911 at myside. He was standing propping himself up against a porch post with one hand behind his back. Three times I asked him to remove his hand from behind his back. After the third time I raised the pistol to eye level and flicked the saftey off. He became very co-operative, used the phone, to call for help (his car had broken down) and he left. After taking off the saftey, if he had refused to move his hand or had brought out a weapon I'd would have shot him. I'm glad he moved his hand and that he didn't have a weapon. Drunks are that, drunk; and one never knows what to expect from one. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

Be grateful for your dad and that you can call and talk with him. Enjoy every moment with him you can. There will come a day when you cannot call. Those days make for long days indeed.

Sounds like you did all the right things. Good work.
 

Citizen

Founder's Club Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2006
Messages
18,269
Location
Fairfax Co., VA
For what? Being drunk on your porch?

Did he try to force entry? Make threats? Anything at all? Or are you just itching to be a Brady Bunch poster child for gun grabbing?

Not contradicting or criticizing.

The reason to shoot if the drunk brings out a weapon from behind his back is obvious to me.

I cannot see the rationale for shooting if the drunk refused to bring his hand out, as JohnH mentioned. Help me out here. Is there something I'm not thinking of?

For example, wouldn't it make more sense to move to some degree of cover if he refused to bring his hand from behind his back? Assuming one did not move to cover as part of drawing?
 
Last edited:

marshaul

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Aug 13, 2007
Messages
11,188
Location
Fairfax County, Virginia
Not contradicting or criticizing.

The reason to shoot if the drunk brings out a weapon from behind his back is obvious to me.

I cannot see the rationale for shooting if the drunk refused to bring his hand out, as JohnH mentioned. Help me out here. Is there something I'm not thinking of?

For example, wouldn't it make more sense to move to some degree of cover if he refused to bring his hand from behind his back? Assuming one did not move to cover as part of drawing?

Sure, if he's got a weapon, shoot him. If he tries to force his way into your house, go ahead and shoot him if that's what you feel you need to do. If he threatens you and won't obey orders, you might have reason to shoot him.

But some guy just standing on your porch?

I would try, you know, shutting my door before I would shoot the guy. Hell, raising the gun and turning off the safety to gain compliance doesn't even really bother me, being that it is his property.

But shooting someone is literally a last-ditch resort.

Frankly, that's exactly the kind of thing that causes Brady Bunchers to cry "blood in the streets!" I might point out to them that nobody was actually shot in this case, but I still would caution against anybody shooting the drunk based on the facts JohnH presented.
 
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MR Redenck

Regular Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2010
Messages
596
Location
West Texas
How did that happen 3 hours ago when it would take 4 hours to write all that? :lol:

LOL....
Man im glad the cops handled the situstion like they did. Sounds like a terrible thing to go through, and im glad to hear it all ended well.
 

JohnH

Regular Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2008
Messages
87
Location
, ,
For what? Being drunk on your porch?

Did he try to force entry? Make threats? Anything at all? Or are you just itching to be a Brady Bunch poster child for gun grabbing?

For being drunk on my porch? No. For being on my porch and not complying with a request to show me both hands. I'm standing in the doorway, pistol in hand. I ask him three times. Not once, not twice, but three times to remove his hand from behind his back. Three times I got the answer, "I ain't got nothing behind my back." Now, put yourself in those shoes and and ask if the situation constitutes a "reasonable fear for my life". It was not until he showed me his hands and I let him in to use the phone (we didn't have cell phones in those days) that I realized he was drunk. My whole concentration was on the fact that he was keeping one hand behind his back and he would not remove it, even though I was making a strong show of force. Remember I asked him three times to remove his hands, each time he refused. It was not untill the forth time that I raised the pistol and took the saftey off that he complied.

What was in my mind at that point was that he was thinking of attacking me when I opened the door but my showing up with a pistol surprised him and he didn't know how to back out of the situation (that could still be the truth for all I know) It was 10 PM, we lived 4 miles from the nearest city limit, (with one cop) 16 miles from county seat (where the sheriffs office is at God knows where the patrols woould have been) Crack cocaine had just come onto the scene and driveby shootings and car jackings were beginning to happen in the county seat (Athens Ga.) Convienience store robberies were a weekly occurance. What constitutes "reasonable fear", that the situation be such that an reasonable person would be in fear of their life. Is there any part of that whole that makes my "fear of my life" unreasonable to you?

That was some 18 years ago and I don't care what the Brady Bunch thinks.
 

MR Redenck

Regular Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2010
Messages
596
Location
West Texas
Sure, if he's got a weapon, shoot him. If he tries to force his way into your house, go ahead and shoot him if that's what you feel you need to do. If he threatens you and won't obey orders, you might have reason to shoot him.

But some guy just standing on your porch?

I would try, you know, shutting my door before I would shoot the guy. Hell, raising the gun and turning off the safety to gain compliance doesn't even really bother me, being that it is his property.

But shooting someone is literally a last-ditch resort.

Frankly, that's exactly the kind of thing that causes Brady Bunchers to cry "blood in the streets!" I might point out to them that nobody was actually shot in this case, but I still would caution against anybody shooting the drunk based on the facts JohnH presented.

I agree, shooting should be a last resort.
Such as the Op's raging drunk. He kept his eye's focused on the SOB. Even with his hands behind his back he didn't shoot. Now if the drunk went to pull the gun out from behind him, by all means shoot the SOB.
And for the OP, did he ever notice if the drunks really had a gun? :uhoh:
 

carry for myself

Regular Member
Joined
May 1, 2011
Messages
544
Location
Maine
stronger willed than i. if a guy had said to me he had a gun and "we were gonna do this" than reached.....i would have emptyed my Kahr CW40. and wondered later. that is some scary stuff. thank god he didnt pull. and thank god your okay man. good job.
 

hogeaterf6

Regular Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2010
Messages
381
Location
, ,
Glad it worked out for you. Good job.


As for the other foks, becareful on what you say about being 'drunk'. That is a hard word to define and only the police/courts can actually say he is 'drunk'. If you are called to court and say he is drunk they will ask you how you know he is drunk? Do you see him drink? Its best to say his actions appeared to be that of a person that has consumed ETOH. Because you have no proof. He could be high, diabetic, or other medical emergency that mimicks the actions of a drunk person. Also how do you define drunk? You have no way. You can ask 20 different people and most will have different opinions on what is drunk. In my work we cannot say he is drunk even tho he appears to be and actually says he has been drinking.
Just saying becareful if you have to give a statement.
 

mrbds2011

New member
Joined
May 31, 2011
Messages
4
Location
ohio
thank the good Lord.

six years ago i was comming out of a habor frate in Dayton,OH and two men tried to rob me . the one guy said giv me five bucks and before i could even say no he shot in the cheast . thank god i had a cz 40p on . i fired four times and they zig zaged away .


i was shaking and jittery for allmost an hour after . your very cool headed....good jod.. but some times there just crazy . what else can you do?
 

OldCurlyWolf

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2010
Messages
907
Location
Oklahoma
six years ago i was comming out of a habor frate in Dayton,OH and two men tried to rob me . the one guy said giv me five bucks and before i could even say no he shot in the cheast . thank god i had a cz 40p on . i fired four times and they zig zaged away .


i was shaking and jittery for allmost an hour after . your very cool headed....good jod.. but some times there just crazy . what else can you do?

Do you want to try again? Totally off the wall with this one.:uhoh:
 
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