Not even sure if I should be posting this, but oh well.

Short-

I got road raged on. Apparently I didnt accelerate fast enough for the guy. He preceeded to ride my as and lay on the horn before going around me in the passing lane, and nearly taking the nose of my car off.  Guy then starts swerving all over the road, acting like an ass, nearly wrecking his own truck into others or off the road. Very reckless.  I did nothing to antagonize him,other than laugh at his stupidity and shake my head. Much muddle finger, thrashing about in the cab, much rage. At this point my red light comes on and Im not feeling good about this guy. I've never seen anyone rage like this before.

It comes to a head when the next light changes yellow, and he slams on his brakes so he can stop for it. I can see the confrontation coming at this point. I am behind him in the lane to his right, about 2 cars back. When the door opens on his truck, is when I draw. As he storms over to my vehcile swearing, I slowly roll the window down. (windows slightly tinted). Gun is already pointed at him as the window finishes rolling down. Lots of explatives and such on his part. As the window rolls down and reveals the gun, I very calmly (surprising how calm I was - even to myself) say - "this is about to go very badly for you. I suggest you get back in your truck, and drive on". At this point in my head, I feel like I WAS reserved that if he approached me after seeing my defensive stance, and the firearm, I would fire. I was already checking behind my target at this point, and was trying to anticipate him producing a weapon. I dont even remember other cars around us,(other than there were several)  or what they were doing, etc as I was totally focused on him and his movements. he was about 15 feet or so from me, possibly less.

I genuinely thought I would have to fire, and was starting to worry about the consequences.

Luckily he took about 3 steps back, gave a final "you need to learn to fing drive mother fer" and got back in his truck. He did seem visbly shaken, and I stayed behind him (not stupid) until he turned off about 3-4 miles later.

I havent pointed a hot weapon at a human being in a long damn time.

Questions for the wolf pack -
Did I do right? Or wrong?
I have no intention of reporting this, I dont trust cops. But should I?

It must take a special kind of stupid to do this crap to a guy with a molon laabe, NRA, and M4 sticker on his car. Seriously?

What say the hive? Did I do the right thing or was I stupid?


ETA - Called local police after some suggestions here

live in a very conservative / somewhat rural county.

TL:DR of 15 minute conversation with Sherrif Sgt -

"Good Job"

kept weapon close to self in vehicle, wasnt waving it around dangerously.

Other guy got out, was looking for touble.

"you probably stopped a fight where someone would have had bodily injury and an assault charge"

"this is why we have the second ammendment, your right to defend yourself"

man I love the county where I live.

Shoulda shot him.

Not guilty.

Thats a stupid statement man. This is serious to me.

ETA - If I shot him at 15 feet and he was unarmed, what then? Comeon man this is serious to me.

In....

Should have called popo and given vehicle description and license plate number while dude was doing his thing.
Usually first call wins these things. Because he could have driven off and called the law, telling them some nut was waving a gun around at him.

Otherwise, works for me.

I can't judge, I wasn't there and wasn't in your shoes.  However, since I am safely behind my monitor in my office, and others are as well, I expect you'll get quite a few analyses of your actions.

I'm not sure if I would have rolled down my window when he got up to the car.  That's about all I can say.  Is that smart or stupid?  Had he started beating on the window to force entry or pulled a blunt object and beat on it, you would have a better case in the eyes of the DA if you'd have had to shoot.  Otherwise, he probably would have stood there going full retard yelling at your window before stomping off.

WWJYD?



ETA:  Another poster made a good point about calling it in.  I guess that has to do with VA law.  It's really subjective if you were justified to show threat of deadly force to an unarmed guy.

Again, I'm not advocating or deriding personal decisions, I'm just thinking out loud about how the cops/prosecutor/jury might see it after the fact.

REPORT IT, NOW.

You may already be too late.

In.

I would report it before he does.

there were other cars about. several other. he almost hit one.

Sounds like you did what was necessary to protect your life. It took a lot of reserve to not fire.

Honestly, I would call it in. While you don't want to invite the man into your life, you could be charged with "brandishing" or worse if the guy calls in and twists the story to you threatening him with a gun.

why is everyone saying "in"?

I would have called the police immediately after that went down.  In the state I live your vehicle is an extension of your castle.

They are tagging the thread in their subscriptions instead of hitting the subscribe button.

 

I would say you did everything right.

I really dont trust cops.

Im afraid if I report it, something bad will happen. (to me)

I think you did it about right.  I doubt you will hear anything more about this, he was in the wrong and will figure that out when he calms down.

Only feeed back I have for you is this.

Sucks you had to do what you did but sounds like you did most every thing correct.

Most correct was being armed tobegin with

+1, and if you really said what you claim to have said, you did everything you needed to avoid spent cases on the pavement and everything that comes along with those spent cases.



 

did you blade at 45?

I would have done the same up until he got back in his truck and drove away. I would have called it in it right then and there.

doesn't your state have a mutual combat law

seriously?

Im not that type of person.

Glad you're okay OP A few years ago I had to draw my USP45 while on a business trip-two guys tried to steal my rental car at a traffic light. So for what it's worth, I know how you feel-and it's not a good feeling

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First, you should have been on the cell phone, if you have one, to 911 once it became obvious that the guy was a hazard to both you and the others around you.

I dont know what that is

Sounds good to me. I would've called as soon as he started swerving all over and staying in his state of rage, though.

Before the quarterbacking begins, I think you did excellent!
Kept your cool, anticipated issues, your still breathing, and the dude might think twice next time

Pretty much this.

You were calm, you were conscious of your surroundings, and you stood your ground .


Well done IMO.

Prepare to get MMQB to death. You'll hear about how you just brandished and you shouldn't "show your gun just to scare the big bad boogie man away" and assorted other bull shit.

I was in almost an identical incident summer before last. Reacted the same way, except I didn't roll the window down, I just presented through the windshield as he approached my jeep. The asshole had the audacity to call 911, I had intended to head directly for the police station which was on my way. In hindsight, I should have been first to call 911, as it would have looked even better.

As it was, I got an "Atta boy" from ALL FOUR RESPONDING COPS. Two deputies, on county and one twnship.

The only thing you should have done differently is the same lesson I learned. Be first to call.

ETA: I think it's a better idea to keep the window up, even realizing you may have to shoot through it. I would think it would look very much better to the DA, if you can say,"He busted through my window, I had no choice". Although I understand why you did. Him seeing the gun (cause of tinted glass) de-escalated the situation and that's a better thing than having to shoot.

Adding too: I was also very calm and comforted in having total control of the situation. It brings up an interesting question: How can you say you were in fear for your life, if you have a gun? I can say," I had to shoot him or he would have hurt me". But I couldn't say, that at that point I was scared of getting hurt. I know it's just semantics.

This, you did everything 100% right until you didn't call. You could lose your freedom simply by not being the first to call.

If he calls:

Yeah, 911? Some wacko just went into a blind rage because I didn't accelerate fast enough for him. He ran me off the road and pulled a gun on me. His plate is _______ .

Holy crap! I never even noticed the subscribe button! I seriously thought you had to post to subscribe.

To me, I think the idiot in the truck almost gettin' dead is worth it for that alone.

I think you handled it perfectly.

Why would you shoot him? You were in your vehicle, to me someone yelling at you doesn't justify lethal force.

Sounds like you did right to me.  Probably should have called the police, just to keep the other guy from doing it and claiming someone in traffic pulled a gun on him for no reason.   Other than that, well done!

Almost a good shoot. You did good.

My wife and I ran into an idiot like that a while back. While he was in front of us pulling his crap after passing us the very same way and almost running us off the road in the process, I simply put my iphone on video record and held it up where he could plainly see it. Fortunately he saw it and sped off. We were on an interstate and the guy was seriously putting us in danger. Had he followed us off the interstate and pulled the same thing your idiot did I would have done the same thing you did.

The only thing I would have done differently is to call the cops immediately, if he was smart and called in reporting you as some psycho with a gun things could have gone very badly for you.

That says a lot about our society.





You can count on something bad happening to you if he reports it first.

You did okay.  My Monday morning quarterbacking:

Could you have taken a side road temporarily to put more distance between you and the rager?
If the light was upon you, that's understandable that you couldn't.
Drawing when he exited his vehicle = good.  It doesn't take a genius IQ to know why he got out of the car.
Rolling down window = not great.  Makes it seem like you're willing to engage in confrontation.
Not calling it in to the LEO = bad.  "Officer, I just had an aggressive individual road rage against me in traffic, at a stop light he exited his vehicle to confront me and I was in fear of my life.  His vehicle description is XXX X XXXX X X X X, license plate X X X  XXXX, he's driving east on highway 300" etc.

However, I wasn't in your shoes.

I wonder if any LEO's will chime in on this.

Since I don't live in a free state it is a non-issue for me.  In that situation I think I would front run a potential problem
by calling the cops first and reporting the guy.

The other guy calls the cops - "A guy cut me off in traffic.  I wanted to talk to him about it.  All I did was walk up to
his car and he pulled a gun on me!!  Cryo_tech is a mean mean meanie and he should be arrested"

ALSO - you don't roll down your window IMO in that situation.  That is an invitation for him to escalate by reaching into
the car.  No need for it.

Move away from the East Coast.

He didn't have a weapon?.....was he very large?.....Scary?.....Taking a fighting stance?....Fists clenched?......Yelling anything like "I'm Gonna kill you"?.....Were you scared of receiving an immediate battery where you could have received great bodily injury or death?

Good job, but call it up now because you didn't have your cell phone at the time.

did he have on a "hoodie" ?

same thing happened to me and when the man got out i ran the light and about took him out, i guess you were locked in traffic. i have been on both ends of this situation, never to the point of going after someone, but i do get angry.

He didn't. He simply drew his gun and ended the situation.

Well I just called them.


Supposed to be getting a call back.

Now Im even more fucking nervous.

Not the type to get into a fist fight, but the type to kill a man?