A road range incident in Ft. Wayne, Indiana last fall escalated to shots fired, with the primary aggressor punching out another motorist’s driver’s side window. As the hot-tempered window puncher wound up to continue the attack upon the red van’s driver, that driver fired his Ruger .380 pistol three times. Two of the rounds found their mark on the guy who broke the window, while the third hit a passing motorist.
Police initially charged the man who fired with a felony. This despite the man’s claim of self-defense of himself and his wife in the passenger seat.
Last week, an Indiana judge not only dismissed the charges but ordered the arrest expunged from the man’s record. That outcome comes as close to a happy ending as possible for the motorist who came under attack.
From WPTA News:
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) – An Allen County judge has dismissed a felony charge filed in a November road rage shooting, court records show.
The 42-year-old Fort Wayne man was originally charged with a level 6 felony of criminal recklessness committed with a deadly weapon in connection with the Nov. 19. shooting.
That day, police say they got several calls about a road rage incident on Maplecrest Road. A witness told 21Alive he was driving by when he heard gunfire, and a bullet went through the front passenger window of his SUV.
The witness said a car was weaving in and out of traffic on Maplecrest and cut off a van, causing them to brake and honk their horn. He said the vehicles continued to weave around each other when the car struck the van.
The car then stopped, and police say two men inside got out and ran up to the van. Court documents say the car’s driver then punched out the van’s front window as the van driver was seated with the door closed. Then, the witness said he heard gunshots ring out…
Then on Nov. 28, Judge John Bohdan filed an order to dismiss that charge. He also ordered the man’s record to be expunged.
All of us, including the motorist should look at what happened to see how to better handle such incidents. Frankly, thanks to dashcam video of the motorist behind the van, we see that Mr. Red Van’s actions that day were far from ideal.
First off, pretty much all of us have likely found ourselves on the receiving end of road rage. For whatever reason, when drivers become frustrated, they often do things in their car that none of us would likely do face-to-face with someone in a store or a parking lot.
Angry people have terrible judgement, be they kiddos or adults. As such, we should all endeavor to avoid angry people, especially angry motorists.
Instead of engaging with the road rager as Mr. Red Van did, allow them to pass and give them plenty of space even if they don’t have the right-of-way. If you wave at them, make sure to extend all of your digits. Put distance and obstacles between you and your loved ones and any road idiots and call 911 if they decide they want to play cat and mouse with you and your car. Remember, he who calls 911 first is usually considered the “victim.”
Give that irrational motorist every opportunity to expeditiously arrive at their destination or alternatively, to find someone else upon which to focus their rage. Remember, when people are super angry, they often cannot think clearly or rationally.
To Mr. Red Van’s credit, he did hold fire until the other motorist punched out his driver’s side window. Punch out a window and continue your assault of another motorist, you may find your ticket punched. That seems like a good lesson for the aggressors who exited their car to attack another driver.
No doubt the red van’s driver saw himself as the victim of the attack when he talked with police. Incredibly (and foolishly!) he even signed a waiver of his rights and answered police questions without an attorney present. Frankly, that was dumb. Not only did talking with the police and waiving the rest of his rights (which are there for his protection!) not save him an arrest, but it complicated his defense. Read all about it in the arrest affidavit submitted by a Ft. Wayne police officer.
Moral of the story, keep your mouth shut and say nothing except “I was in fear for my life and want to talk with an attorney before an answer questions.” Then get that attorney to help you make your statement. That is your right and should be exercised in such a situation.
Lastly, Mr. Witness in the white Ford Escape: He not only failed to create distance and obstacles, but he apparently didn’t notice the attack as he drove past. That proved an epic situational awareness fail. He caught an errant round from the red van driver’s use of force in self-defense because of his merrily oblivious drive through the scene of a crime-in-progress. Car windows don’t stop bullets, but engine blocks typically will.
Don’t make the same mistakes as the red van’s driver. Yes, the case was dropped, but who knows how many thousands of dollars he spent on Tums and lawyers over the past couple of months. And the Escape’s driver might file a civil suit against him as well, although the likelihood of success on that remains far from certain.
Enjoy a Happy New Year 2024 and stay safe, in part by trying to stay smart.
We can hope that the fool who punched out the window totally screwed up his hand, as well as got his arm ventilated. He should remember that day every time he flexes his hand or extends his arm, for the rest of his life. Who here has ever punched out an automotive window? There are plenty of videos on Youtube of idiots who thought it was easy. Remember, children, there are a LOT OF BONES to break in your hand!
So, uhh, duh, you are saying he should have just punched the window once and then hauled ass?
/s
He should have punched you….
Do not wave at the angry road rage person! This is likely to make them angrier and have them focus on you.
I have never entirely understood why it makes them more angry than flipping them off but my experience makes me believe it is true. Better not to engage with a road rager at all, and let the unstable person explode somewhere else.
It made me quite angry once near Chiraq on the tollway-he cut me off. Really a bad idea when you’re a dumb driver. It also had the effect of a one finger salute. I had no guns then🙄
After 60 years of highway travel on two wheels the middle finger salute is automatic but reserved for the most egregious acts of stupidity, I rarely get more than a few miles from home before some dumbass tries to kill me and if the asshole is truly dumb enough to escalate the situation, I can put some distance between us pretty quickly and get prepared if they really want to get stupid… I decided a long time ago that allowing those idiots to just continue on their way in blissful ignorance just puts other, less attentive riders in more danger later on… I’m a lot more forgiving when I’m on four wheels…
Good point. Long hair, 1960s, blue haired old ladies in the biggest damn Pontiac ever made…
Danger!
No way it was accidental.
before some dumbass tries to kill me
Uh, 40 years in the saddle here and I can assure you that EVERYONE driving in a cage is trying to kill you (us). Some actively, some passively, but all are trying to kill us.
Exactly why I stopped riding in 1994. Put 5 friends in the ground due to interactions with 4 wheelers. The worst was an actual murder, when he was run down by a Azzhat in a pickup. Over an argument from a game a pool.
If I quit doing shit because it’s “dangerous” I’d be spending the rest of my life locked in my bedroom (even that has its “dangers”)… I’ve buried a lot of friends for a lot of different reasons as well, (some motorcycle related) and one of them was also murdered (by a rival group of “motorcycle enthusiasts”)… I set a 10,000 mile a year minimum goal and the past five I’ve exceeded 20,000 with the exception of last year, storms and flooding held me to 15,000… I’ll ride til I can no longer throw my leg over the seat… Started this year with a 250-mile New Years Day trip… Live until you die (we’ll all do that no matter HOW we choose to live) and pay attention, it can save your life…
Right, because you are always 100% aware and legal when riding.
because you are always 100% aware and legal when riding.
If you’re referring to me, other than running a bit over the posted speed limit from time to time yes, I am 100% legal AND HYPER-vigilant when I’m riding, that’s exactly how I’ve survived to the age of 74 while participating in a number of high-risk activities including using a motorcycle as my primary means of transportation…
Not clear from this video whether window breaker used a tool. Windows are very hard to break with a bare hand/fist.
Stupid actions on both drivers and the one driving past the active crime site.
Clearly you haven’t seen Karate Kid II.
Not at all hard for an average male to do if they are drunk/high/don’t care if they break bones. Now with that out of the way a normal person not in some form of an excited state yes you are correct but all manner of simple tools to make that trivial as a barrier.
The van driver was raging so bad, he swerved and hit the other car! He was begging for a fight. He should have been charged and convicted. This incident didn’t have to happen. He put innocent bystanders in danger because he got into an ego battle with an aggressive driver. We shouldn’t be cheering this on just because he’s a gun owner.
“The van driver was raging so bad, he swerved and hit the other car! He was begging for a fight. He should have been charged and convicted“
You are correct.
Would he have been so aggressive if he wasn’t armed?
One could’ve predicted his behavior, with the gun in his pocket he knew he was Barney bad ass and acted accordingly.
Welcome to no training/BGC constitutional carry.
“We shouldn’t be cheering this on just because he’s a gun owner”
Again, you are correct.
Conservative group-think tribalism.
MINOR49er, Yeah, and? It seems you and your Leftist hoplophobes all of a sudden can read minds?
You will note that BOTH DRIVERS are being charged?
“You will note that BOTH DRIVERS are being charged?“
Really?
What are the charges?
MINOR49er, REALLY, Did you bother to read the article or are you slumming again.
“Would he have been so aggressive if he wasn’t armed?” Yes.
Conservative group-think tribalism.
Sounds a lot like Progressive “group think” except you’re not allowed to “think”, that’s why you are issued “talking points” from your masters every morning…
Welcome to no training/BGC constitutional carry.
Had nothing to do with it…
with the gun in his pocket he knew he was Barney bad ass and acted accordingly.
In the “Wild West” of Indiana how did he know the other guy was not armed?
Neither of them should have a driver’s license. Just the tit-for-tat brake-checking was enough to endanger everyone else on the road.
As others, I am glad the person using a firearm defensively is not being charged. However, he did not score a critical hit at 12 inches? He hit the guy in the arm twice and missed once.
And the judge should have taken action against the prosecutor. There had to be better use of their legal time than to bring this case.
Messy situations tend to be messy. But yeah prosecutor probably overstepped a bit.
“Neither of them should have a driver’s license“. Or a firearm.
If they can’t control their temper well enough to operate a motor vehicle, why would you think they had the necessary judgment to handle lethal weapons?
Yet I would bet you’re OK with the pro-Gaza DEMONstrators that shut down the Belt Pkwy around JFK and launched balloons to crash aircraft having access to knives….and DLs.
Make no mistake whiner, you’re just as laughable in ’24 as you were in ’23.
Once a 🤡, always a 🤡.
Funny how that crap only happens in BLUE run areas, try that in FL get run over with the blessings of the law behind you…
BLM tried to take a protest onto a highway in Dallas during the ‘Summer of Love’. DPD cracked skulls and made arrests on the hwy access ramps.
If those sorry stupid saps had made it up onto the hwy, they would have been road pizzas.
Funny story, Dallas TX and surrounding Dallas County is DEEP Blue since 2004 voting nearly 65% Democrat but a little over three months ago the Democrat Mayor of Dallas switched parties… “Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson switches to Republican Party” “Dallas mayor switches parties to join GOP – CNN”.. Wonder what he knows that we don’t?
Minerva we definitely partially agree, the initial aggressor was dumbass number one and one-A, but the van guy kept it going so he’s dumbass number two but when dumbasses one and one-A decided to further escalate by becoming physical dumbass number two had the right to defend himself. I would do the same thing to a dumbass who assaulted me (yes breaking out your car’s window is assault if you are sitting behind it)… Indiana Constitutional Carry law had nothing to with it, van guy was a “lawful” gun-owner and qualified for a permit under old Indiana CC laws, don’t know about Indiana but his actions would have also been protected in FL by the Castle Doctrine which extends to your occupied vehicle, actions of dumbass one and one-A would have been considered a home invasion, (upon further review Indiana DOES have a similar Castle Doctrine AND a Stand Your Ground law (you really should read more) any one of which would exonerate dumbass number 2… Get it right or don’t address it… It is good to see that another year hasn’t changed your warped idea of the “truth” but tossing in a bit of actual fact might help… Naaahhhhhhhhhh… Unless you have a degree in Psychology your judgement privileges are hereby revoked…
Stupid driving and sloppy shooting on the part of the red van and stupid and stupider on the part of the wounded azzhat and his like minded pal. Hopefully morons viewing the video will save themselvesa a lot of trouble and learn to relax.
I do have to hand it to a driver I saw on a trip to Dallas driving a Dually. He needed to merge from the far lane of the interstate to exit so he squeezed the monster between two vehicles in the middle lane with no more than six inches front and back and popped out in front of me in perfect time for the exit ramp. It was NASCAR level art.
Probably a farmboy. Start swinging a tractor at age 9, you learn to work close.
This video only tells a minimal portion of what may have transpired that day, between the van and car. From this video, i would’ve found the van driver as the one that initiated the aggressive behavior. However, we have no idea what happened a mile or more before what is shown here. Bottom line, don’t be a DB…..unless you’re tired of living.
Legally, it doesn’t matter what happened earlier in that day or several miles before. This was on John Correia’s channel a few weeks ago and there is a little more video leading up to this shooting than the news people showed. The van driver didn’t initiate anything. The van driver was stupid in participating but he didn’t start it.
A couple months ago a road rager cut me off, almost causing a wreck. I backed the hell off, almost stopping in the road so this clown could get far away. This idiot didn’t know I was carrying a gun. At the same time, what did I know about that driver other than he was a petty, bitter person?
Not worth my time, money, life to find out.
It is better to let the instigator move on down the road and thus not waste time cursing the other driver and avoid a wreck or confrontation. In the long run the best thing to do is simply let the bad guy drive away and don’t get involved. So what if someone cuts you off and causes a delay of a few seconds, are a few seconds of time going to really make that much difference in you life. It ain’t necessarily easy but avoidance can/may prove to be far less time consuming and expensive.
There are more and more crazed druggies and mental health cases around. Unfortunately metro areas are filled with Soros sponsored leftist DA’s and clueless anti gun prejudiced juries. Should he have fired against an unarmed man?!?!? If he had used a less than lethal self defense option, he would not have had to have gone through the legal ordeal he did. More and more I believe carrying a less than lethal option along with a firearm is important, especially if you live in a leftist metro area in an anti gun leftists state!!!
Road rage? Let it go. Not worth it. Although, when I was in C.I.D. I drove an unmarked Ford Explorer. I had a few people show their ass before I turned on the blue lights. My opening line upon approaching the driver was, “My, we’re having fun now, aren’t we?” It sometimes turned into an expensive lesson for the rager. Occasionally, it was satisfying being an L.E.O. Moral of the story, don’t mess with strangers. For that very reason. You don’t know who they are, or what they will do.
Road rage is basically vigilante justice. Vigilantism is to be avoided assiduously, especially when traveling with a firearm.
I’m a little questioning why the red van guy was even charged & arrested. That cop should not be in that position of judgement. He abused his authority and should be made pay the red vans court fees.
As for assuming we all have a obligation to de-escalate, probably a good choice but when someone who just gets honked at busts out your window in an aggressive move to harm you and your family, it’s time to react to the situation. Not sit down and have tea with a crazy person.
The lesson here is to leave others alone and not act a fool.
The red van had every right and obligation to honk his horn. That is the reason cars have had horns on them for over 120 years now.
The violent driver was not in the right no matter how you slice this pie up.
Cops, judges and the public need to stop defending the actions of violent people.
If you defend yourself & especially if there’s video of it proving such, any actions by police should be held to an extreme level of support for the victim.
Giving criminals an edge is criminal.
The raging psycho had no weapon. It was firing at an unarmed man, and that is all you need in leftists areas to produce a charge. If he had used pepper spray to disable the assailant he would not have been charged. Also his surrendering his rights thinking he was justified in shooting the guy was stupid. All the rationalizing about whether or not it was right for the cops and DA to charge him is mute. That’s what we who live in leftists areas have to deal with.
Red van guy has his own issues. Responding the way he did put his life and his wifes life at risk. And he responded the way he did because he thinks he is some kind of tough guy. Also he responded the way he did because he was carrying a gun and he was going to handle it. An armed society is not always a polite society. Sometimes it’s a stupid society.
@MADDMAX, Savor & Friends:
January 1971, just returned from RVN, riding a fully laid down LIME GREEN Kawasaki Cafe Racer (full racing fairing, clip-ons and rearset foot pegs) cream colored leathers with a white, full-faced Bell Star helmet. In my element on a gently twisting two-lane.
I looked almost as Marlon Brando-ish as Howdy Doody did.
Hollywood was busy cranking out Biker Gang Rape Movies (like Billy Jack).
Tooling down the (rural) HWY 25 from Hollister to King City, actually ruminating on studying for the Ministry.
Tan Ford (Falcon?) overtakes, older woman at the wheel. She gets front bumper to my rear axle, we meet eyeball to eyeball…
She cranks the wheel hard over, deciding perhaps that I need to be eradicated to save Planet Earth. I evade by gently and gentlemanly diving the bike straight into the roadside ditch. At speed…
She continues on, supremely confident that she saved the world from a horrid sex-monster.
A half hour’s worth of duct taping and I’m on my way. Pretty sore, with no more thoughts of trying to help save psychopathic movie drama addicts from themselves.
In 71 I was still “RUNin Through the Jungle” (thanks CCR) on my 2nd trip, but by mid 72 I was sporting around Southern California on a full custom chopped 58 Panhead complete with 14″ over Springer front end and the obligatory King/Queen seat with four-foot sissy bar (couldn’t bring myself to do the fishtail exhaust tips… It WAS an interesting era… There would eventually be a Yoshimura prepped KZ900 in the garage next to the Harley (fast is good too)…
no way man the shooter needs to be charged. self defense or not he was reckless and could have killed innocent people. he does not deserve to own guns and is an embarrassment to gun owners. you can’t just haphazardly fire into the general vicinity of someone through a window. come on man
The ‘come on man.’ last line leads me to think this MAY be satire, but if not…
Do you stupid, much?
Someone breaks my window and reaches in to attack me is gonna get ventilated IF I can’t just escape by driving away.
Period.
And no road rage is needed. Just sitting at a stoplight will work for some asswholes too.
My favorite of an “own goal” is a time I was driving eastbound on Sydney’s M4 motorway. West of the Cumberland Highway over bridge, the motorway is a 100kph limit (about 60mph). At the bridge the limit dropped to 80kph AND had a speed camera at the East side of the bridge (proudly sponsored by the Office of State Revenue).
Knowing the speed zone change and the cash register, err speed camera, I slowed down about a few hundred meters out. Van driver behind me gets right on my behind and then changes lanes and resumes the old speed limit just as we go underneath the bridge.
FLASH goes the camera! I see the van driver angrily punching his steering wheel. He shoots, he scores.
Trying to avoid stupid people can be hard.
I have been run into at red lights and stop signs about 15 times in 40 years. Sometimes as passenger and even with police car in the lane next to me. I used to do about 1000 miles a week for work which is well above average so I guess more chance of idiots.
But don’t underestimate who is armed or not. Friends and I were coming back from range in his older van when car load of young idiots decided to keep tailgating and crowding him even when there was an overtaking lane.
Aside from carry weapons we had about 15 rifles, shotguns and target pistols. I did half heartedly suggest opening the sliding door and showing one of the AK’s. We didn’t but if they had kept it up it would’ve been a bad choice.
A number of people have remarked that the driver of the red van was not innocent but baited and proved the other driver to become enraged. People have wondered IF carrying a handgun emboldened him to recklessness. That’s the type of behavior the left believe gun owners to be, potentially reckless. Then others have remarked that carrying requires above and beyond caution and care. This guy was NOT innocent by any means!
I think to break out of group think we need to call it as we see it, that he was reckless and gives all gun owners a bad name.
It looks like the .380 actually can stop criminal behavior. A lot of people say its not worth a damn.
I wonder if the driver that got hit by a stray round sued the idiot that was spraying down the highway with high volumes of fire.
Now you know why civilized countries out law both open and concealed carry. Once you give a naked ape a weapon he will use it for the most trivial of reasons including shooting someone who took his favorite parking space.
dacian THE DUNDERHEAD, you do like to extrapolate, don’t you?
By the way, did you ever fine out what the firing sequence of a cartridge is?
Lots of good advice in this article, and one piece of complete nonsense!
Either John Boch didn’t watch the same video that is included in his article or he lives in some fantasy universe where everyone always knows the future.
Blaming the driver of the white SUV for being in the next lane when the idiot driver of the red van started spraying bullets is completely ridiculous.
And by the way, the driver of the red van was NOT charged for shooting the person who attacked him, the driver of the van was PROPERLY charged for shooting the bystander’s vehicle and injuring the bystander.
Apparently John Boch has never attended any armed self-defense training where the instructor mentioned that YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERY ROUND YOU FIRE.
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