Road rage. It’s a thing. In the case above, the shooter was acting in self-defense. Yes but — who wants to shoot someone? If you’re involved in a road rage incident, do everything possible to avoid confrontation. Specifically, drive away, to the nearest police station. (Phone ahead; call 911.)  You should never be boxed in; you should always be able to see tarmac and tires of the car in front of you. But if you are boxed-in, try to push away the cars ahead and drive away. If you can’t, it might be time to draw your firearm and keep it at the ready. Certainly tell the aggressor you’ve called the police. But don’t get out of your car unless you’re trying to run away.
My job keeps me in bay area traffic for however many hours I work a day. I see stuff nearly every day that qualifies as full on retarded. I’m going to get out of this work in June.
The joy of being retired. I can quit my job if I want and not worry about it.
I agree 100%.
As a big rig driver I have had to call 911 in Indiana. I could not comprehend why the guy thought he could run a rig off the road but … I hit the brakesp, got his plate, called and kept rolling. The police got him. Problem solved. I did tell the dispatch that no evasive maneuver would be done other than braking and if I hit him (ran over his car) that it would be his fault and I would not feel guilty.
One of the dispatchers was heard to say I must be really pi……ed but again in the end the Indiana State Police did a great job of dealing with this.
I salute them.
This example is not a very good one. This (now dead) jackwagon chased another man into his own driveway and kept coming. If someone chases me all the way back to my property and still keeps coming then I’m officially backed into a corner and I have to respond violently. The title of this article should be “Self Defense Tip: Don’t Road Rage”.
He kept coming even after being warned away and that the victim of the road rage was armed.
I’m not sure why the family chose to show a picture of the deceased in a shirt that reads “Young and Reckless” but it does seem appropriate since he was obviously both young and reckless in his behavior.
Wow, that poor mother. What pure anguish. As a father of 3, I can’t imagine losing one of my children under any circumstance. I’m sure the pain is unbearable no matter the reason.
I’m not buying the grieving mommy act. Its like her toddler was kidnaped, or something. She’s no doubt the reason “Young & Restless” growed up to be “Young & Stiff”. Good riddance, azzole. Mommy, Do Not Procreate. ever.
I grant the anguish.
I don’t accept the complete bewilderment about why he’s now dead, unless she had no idea about who her son actually was as a person. A mother’s love notwithstanding, self-imposed blinders don’t negate reality.
What is strange is it appears to have said that the shooter veered at the (eventually) deceased when they were driving opposite directions on the road. Then the (eventually) deceased turned around and pursued the shooter. Did anyone else catch that? Or did I hear it wrong? I only watched it once.
You heard right. My assumption is that the guy was distracted or sneezed and veered off in front of the other guy who then took it personally and decided to chase an armed man all the way back to his home.
In this case seems like thugs keep on thugging. Lesson don’t follow me home looking to kill me due to perceived bad driving.
Since no one else said it, I will. If you are being followed by a crazed individual(s), don’t take them to your home! Know where the nearest police (or perhaps fire station) is and go that way. And yes, call 911 if possible. Do you really want someone like that to know where your loved ones are?
If you don’t where the the local P.D. is google it on GPS and it will automatically direct you. A free and excellent GPS app is Waze. More accurate and user friendly than any over the counter unit you can buy.
Google it install it for free. No commercials and it works great.
Here’s a better idea. Don’t do something stupid that will cause a road rager to want to vent.
Most road rage “victims” are usually a result of their own incompetence, stupidity, or jack-assery. Simple things can ease the situation. Stay out of the fast lane unless you are moving faster than other traffic. Indicate, look, and ONLY move when safe to do so. If you see an idiot behind you, get out of their way and let them get caught. Leave a safe gap (about 2 seconds) between you and the car in front. Don’t tailgate, and moreso don’t tailgate someone with a tow-bar. And when buying gas, pay for the gas and move your car away from the pump if you need to buy your weekly shopping.
Common sense and common courtesy are unfortunately not very common any more.
What an idiotic comment.
While I agree with your sentiments, and eagerly await the introduction of automated cars so people who have no interest in driving (resulting in poor driving/not giving a crap) can stop impacting those of us who care, the fault is still 100% on the road rager themselves. There is no justification for dangerous/threatening driving or other behaviors just because someone is driving under the limit in the fast lane, or delaying you 5 minutes in getting your gas. Speeding will rarely save you more than a few minutes even on a 1 hour drive, and if you’re that pressed for time you’re doing something wrong.
That being said, I hardly can cast stones, as I’ve dealt poorly with tailgaters in the past. I can understand (but don’t condone) tailgating someone who is driving well below the speed limit on a road without passing areas, however you’re not accomplishing anything by tailgating the 3rd+ car in a string of cars of that situation. Tailgating me when it’s impossible for me to pass or go faster accomplishes nothing other than making both of us less safe…
At worse get a plate number, call the police and let them do their job. Not work one’s life and you’re not in charge of administering justice for minor traffic infractions. It’s not worth sweating over, and certainly not worth paying the price of a bullet for as in this case.
All the common sense in the world won’t stop a thug trying to kill you. Its why you carry. For the gravest extreme.
and moreso don’t tailgate someone with a tow-bar.
^ really good advice…once upon a time I owned a very used bright mustard yellow ’74 Chevy Nova with a really tough bumper and framed welded trailer hitch. During the time I owned that car I was rear ended 13 times at a stop sign or stop light and never had any damage to the car. I learned 3 lessons from that car: 1 – a trailer hitch is a wonderful thing to have on your car even if you never pull anything. 2 – High visibility yellow appears to be invisible to women since 12 of the 13 were women. 3 – Sometimes someone is going to rear end you no matter adding an extra brake light in the rear window and a horn blaring! Yeah, that was the next to last woman that hit me, and I was blowing the horn because I saw the motion of her passenger side headlight bouncing up and down as she was coming up to hit me.
Who is the maroon that wrote the title for this piece? The road rager is dead as the result of his own road ragery.
Hmmm . . . Fair skinned and his last name was Alvarez, yet did not earn the distinction of being a white hispanic.
#whitehispaniclivesmatter
Mabey on a city road.
On the highway your best bet is try to stop on the shoulder. Pay attention and call police. Hopefully 911 picks up in less than 45 min and in the right department.
I say this because last July some crack dealer,(literally, served federal time for it) comes up behind me at 90+ mph driving a Tahoe. I see him in rear view mirror, and I speed up to get out of his way and jerk the steering wheel right to get into right lane, with out getting rear-ended, soon as I clear the semi on the right. Barely got over, if it had been my truck he would have hit my trailer hitch. I was driving a 82 carburated 4cyl Mercury Capri, half his weight. He never slowed down until he was right beside me, when he leaned forward and to the right, pointed at me, tapped himself on the chest like he wanted to fight, then pointed at the side of the road while yelling at me. I slow down and he slows down and swerves into my lane while I avoid being hit by speeding up and getting on the shoulder (or slowing down and getting on the shoulder). He tried to hit me more than once sideways, while I sped up/slowed down and got on the shoulder to keep from being hit. If I tried to speed up so did he, finally another car slowed down on front of him and downshifts and passed it while he was breaking. He passed it soon as he could and pulled up beside me again boxing me in. I displayed my pistol be resting it over my left wrist, left hand on steering wheel made sure he saw it and hit my breaks. He hit his breaks staying 25 to 50 feet in front of me.
I was in the middle of nowhere and there were no populated or safe places to exit couldn’t call police while trying not to get hit. Just before I got to a safe place to pull off and call the police I get pulled over, aerated and charged with deadly conduct. They let him go free with no charges.
Just stop and call police. You’d be better off.
And I live in Texas
I think the headline for this story matches your post. I think you handled it about as good as one could under the very trying circumstances.
Thats a bunch of sht on the cops arresting u. Had a gun, yup, your guilty. I was chased down the rode when I was 16. Lonely hiway, ballbat weilding gangbanger types. My car couldnt out run theirs, but they couldnt outrun me either. An old man and lady had slid off the road, the gangers stopped and went to work on them. I told dad n he went to Gibsons with half my hay money check n bought me a 22 pistol. Ive carried ever since,leagel or not
A prior criminal record for battery and drug possession, yeah, who could have seen this potential outcome for his life?
9 months later and the still won’t dismiss it. I’m retired military police no prior record or arrests, and he’s a convicted drug dealer.
I never thought this would happen in Texas.
Two thing I learned from this.
1st call 911 first.
2nd get chl legal fee/lawyer insurance.
5 months later they also added unlawful carry. Even though I have a chl, which is now suspended. Legitimate only if they could prove the deadly conduct. But I’ll ask for trial but it’s dragging out.
There is no way you should have to defend yourself if what we read is true.
Once you pulled into your driveway all bets were off and the right to defend became personal.
Wasn’t pulling into driveway. Pulling off to gas station with lots of people where police usually are.
Think it was just wrong day. Was same day terrorist shot up requiting station in Tennessee. About 30-60 minutes after so the police might have just been spun up.
Also the crack dealers wife said he did nothing. Of course she wouldn’t say he did anything.
Attorney and a friend who’s a judge and all my police friends say it will go away just take forever.
The court system is just slow. Haven’t even actually made it to court. My attorney had trial first date, second date prosecutor didn’t show. Prosecutor is new.
The worse side is can’t buy any new guns till this is done, and they have 2 of my pistols 1 carry, one match, which I can’t get back till charges dismissed.
Sorry I got that wrong but I still think it was handled the best you could.
I got punched out in my car years by a jealous boyfriend of an acquaintance of mine. A cop was right there…didn’t see it so no guarantee that their presence will be a deterant.
I hope all goes well for you.
Sorry to hear you lost your pistols. Man Im afraid there going to convict you,lessn you got a good lawyer. The system wants our firearms, it drags on forever. Had a pistol n sks took from me, didnt get the pistol back and they fcked up the sks mag release so it wouldnt stay shut no more. Plus it was clean when they took it, when I got it back it had been shot a bunch was rusty and the stock was all scratched up. I had a public defender. Time taken 1994 time returned 2004
You have to feel for his family’s grief at losing a loved one.
But. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
To me it’s simple. It’s not worth it. You should put your life on the line for your family, your country… But you’re gona put your life on the line for a traffic issue? Wtf?!? Where’s the sense in that?
Even if you’re right and he’s wrong, you want to give the stupid driver a piece of your mind… Who dafuq are you? You think he’s gona take lessons from you? Repeat after me, it’s not worth it.
I have a friend who has road rage. I’m praying he doesn’t get killed for it one day. I keep telling him the same thing I’m telling everyone now, but of course… he won’t listen. Figures.
Definitely “young,” and definitely “reckless.” Doesn’t quite pull on my heart strings.
Of all places to pull into ,,,,not my house last thing i need is for some random sociopath to come back and ” get his “. I know the shooter was probably hyped up and all but just saying right or wrong your setting yourself up knowing your being followed and driving straight to your house. If posible keep driving till the cops show up assuming he called 911. Sad story for the deceased and the begining of a legal ,financial and stressfull nightmare for the shooter. thats the part of these stories that we mostly forget about. Civil court . Its ony just begun
I had a similar experience with two guys who ran a red light and almost T-boned me. I swerved across the next lane and into the bike lane to avoid the accident. They followed me close enough for me to not be able to see their headlights for a couple of miles as I made a series of right turns to avoid stopping. Problem was my low fuel light was on. Driving around while waiting for the police was not an option. When I did pull over into a well lit gas station they continued strait yelling and honking. Now I fill up when I hit 1/4 tank left. Next time I will drive them strait to the PD while I have 911 on the phone. Vastly better result than having to live with defending myself when $5.00 worth of gas could have ended it peacefullishly.
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