UPDATE: Road rage foolishness
The Tazer doesn't know quite what to say about this criminal disregard for life...
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Passenger describes road rage
RICHMOND: Woman's boyfriend, who was driving, was critically hurt in Monday shooting
By Karl Fischer
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Whatever insult the gunman perceived, it will never match the injury he dealt.
The owner of a black Lexus coupe wants the shooter to know how wrong he was Monday afternoon, when his decision during a driving dispute totaled her new, yet-to-be-insured car and nearly killed her boyfriend.
"When it first started happening, I thought it was just kids acting stupid ... but even for kids, they were being aggressive," said the woman, who asked that the Times withhold her identity because she is afraid of her attackers.
"What if my kids were in the car? What if my little brother (in the back seat) was sitting a little more to the side?"
Detectives continued to investigate the road-rage shooting that critically injured the woman's 34-year-old boyfriend about 3 p.m. Monday on San Pablo Avenue, and they urged anyone who witnessed the crime to call.
"You wouldn't think someone would open fire on the busiest street in Richmond during one of the busiest times of day," the woman said Wednesday. "Are you telling me that nobody got the license plate? That nobody else saw anything?"
The victim bought her car so recently, she only had driven it three times before. Last week, she took it to the Department of Motor Vehicles to be registered, she said.
Her boyfriend was driving her to work Monday, and they had just picked up her brother from his job, when a white, full-sized van making an illegal U-turn almost hit their car on Vale Road in San Pablo.
Her boyfriend shouted something at the other driver. The two men in the van then "looked at us all crazy," the woman said.
The van began driving erratically, chasing the Lexus and swerving around it. They turned south on San Pablo Avenue and drove about a half-mile to the intersection at Esmond Avenue in Richmond when the passenger in the van leaned out the window and pumped several rounds into the rear driver's side of the Lexus.
One passed through the car into the back of the driver, who then lost the ability to move his foot from the accelerator.
"I had to take his foot off the accelerator" and hit the brakes, the woman said. The car ran aground on the curb near the intersection of San Pablo and Clinton Avenues, about three blocks from the shooting, where it began leaking gasoline.
The shooting victim should make a full recovery, the woman said. But at the moment, she is without a car, without her boyfriend and without justice.
"Those guys need to be locked up," she said.
Richmond police Detective Mike Rood agrees. While police are following leads in the case, he said Wednesday that every tip helps bring them closer to the gunmen.
It was the second such road-rage shooting police are investigating in the area in less than a week. Last Thursday, a gunman critically injured a 23-year-old Sacramento man test-driving a sport utility vehicle from a local dealership on Interstate 80 near the McBryde Avenue exit.
In Monday's shooting, the van was a white, full-sized vehicle, probably of American manufacture. It had custom, 20-inch chrome rims, including on a fifth wheel attached to the back.
The victim said the driver was a white or Latino man with a round face who wore a dark-colored baseball cap and a white T-shirt.
The shooter, who sat in the passenger seat, was a Latino man with a dark complexion or a black man with a light complexion, the victim said, with a thin face and pronounced chin. He had wavy dark hair that he wore in a pony tail and wore a dark-colored baseball cap askew on his head, covering part of his face. He also wore a dark-colored jacket with patches on it.
Reach Karl Fischer at 510-262-2728 or kfischer@cctimes.com.
HOW TO HELP
Richmond police ask anyone with information about Monday's shooting on San Pablo Avenue to call Detective Mike Rood at 510-620-6625.
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Honking seems to be the catalyst in the I-80 incident. The boyfriend yelling seems to be it for this one. Still, neither justifies violence as a response, and the Tazer hopes the thugs are apprehended before they can do this again.
What's next? Perceiving the use of blinkers as a prelude to getting cut off? Windshield sprayers as an insult to a paint job?
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Passenger describes road rage
RICHMOND: Woman's boyfriend, who was driving, was critically hurt in Monday shooting
By Karl Fischer
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Whatever insult the gunman perceived, it will never match the injury he dealt.
The owner of a black Lexus coupe wants the shooter to know how wrong he was Monday afternoon, when his decision during a driving dispute totaled her new, yet-to-be-insured car and nearly killed her boyfriend.
"When it first started happening, I thought it was just kids acting stupid ... but even for kids, they were being aggressive," said the woman, who asked that the Times withhold her identity because she is afraid of her attackers.
"What if my kids were in the car? What if my little brother (in the back seat) was sitting a little more to the side?"
Detectives continued to investigate the road-rage shooting that critically injured the woman's 34-year-old boyfriend about 3 p.m. Monday on San Pablo Avenue, and they urged anyone who witnessed the crime to call.
"You wouldn't think someone would open fire on the busiest street in Richmond during one of the busiest times of day," the woman said Wednesday. "Are you telling me that nobody got the license plate? That nobody else saw anything?"
The victim bought her car so recently, she only had driven it three times before. Last week, she took it to the Department of Motor Vehicles to be registered, she said.
Her boyfriend was driving her to work Monday, and they had just picked up her brother from his job, when a white, full-sized van making an illegal U-turn almost hit their car on Vale Road in San Pablo.
Her boyfriend shouted something at the other driver. The two men in the van then "looked at us all crazy," the woman said.
The van began driving erratically, chasing the Lexus and swerving around it. They turned south on San Pablo Avenue and drove about a half-mile to the intersection at Esmond Avenue in Richmond when the passenger in the van leaned out the window and pumped several rounds into the rear driver's side of the Lexus.
One passed through the car into the back of the driver, who then lost the ability to move his foot from the accelerator.
"I had to take his foot off the accelerator" and hit the brakes, the woman said. The car ran aground on the curb near the intersection of San Pablo and Clinton Avenues, about three blocks from the shooting, where it began leaking gasoline.
The shooting victim should make a full recovery, the woman said. But at the moment, she is without a car, without her boyfriend and without justice.
"Those guys need to be locked up," she said.
Richmond police Detective Mike Rood agrees. While police are following leads in the case, he said Wednesday that every tip helps bring them closer to the gunmen.
It was the second such road-rage shooting police are investigating in the area in less than a week. Last Thursday, a gunman critically injured a 23-year-old Sacramento man test-driving a sport utility vehicle from a local dealership on Interstate 80 near the McBryde Avenue exit.
In Monday's shooting, the van was a white, full-sized vehicle, probably of American manufacture. It had custom, 20-inch chrome rims, including on a fifth wheel attached to the back.
The victim said the driver was a white or Latino man with a round face who wore a dark-colored baseball cap and a white T-shirt.
The shooter, who sat in the passenger seat, was a Latino man with a dark complexion or a black man with a light complexion, the victim said, with a thin face and pronounced chin. He had wavy dark hair that he wore in a pony tail and wore a dark-colored baseball cap askew on his head, covering part of his face. He also wore a dark-colored jacket with patches on it.
Reach Karl Fischer at 510-262-2728 or kfischer@cctimes.com.
HOW TO HELP
Richmond police ask anyone with information about Monday's shooting on San Pablo Avenue to call Detective Mike Rood at 510-620-6625.
---------------------------------
Honking seems to be the catalyst in the I-80 incident. The boyfriend yelling seems to be it for this one. Still, neither justifies violence as a response, and the Tazer hopes the thugs are apprehended before they can do this again.
What's next? Perceiving the use of blinkers as a prelude to getting cut off? Windshield sprayers as an insult to a paint job?
posted by Plunda Claus @ 6:17 AM
2 Comments:
At January 20, 2007 7:55 AM,
Anonymous said…
The other common denominator in these incidents that might be relevant is that they were both "posh" cars that in and of themselves represent wealth (SUV/Lexus)
At January 20, 2007 8:48 AM,
Anonymous said…
So what do it mean if your in a bucket and get sprayed??
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