Road rage suspect: ‘There are assault rifle parts in my trunk but they never came out’
A 20-year-old road rage suspect accused of pointing a rifle at another vehicle in Tacoma has been charged with two counts of second-degree assault.
He pleaded not guilty at arraignment Wednesday.
Charging papers give this account:
The suspect almost hit the other vehicle when he turned in front of it near South 48th Street and Tacoma Mall Boulevard.
He also almost hit an elderly person in the intersection.
The defendant then yelled out the window as he followed the other vehicle and threw something in the air as he pulled up next to it.
He swerved in front of the other vehicle as it tried to stop at a convenience store.
That’s when he pointed what looked like a rifle stock and yelled: “What are you going to do now?”
The two people inside the other car said they feared for their lives, court records show.
“They noted there was a scope on the rifle,” the declaration for determination of probable cause says.
The suspect dropped the rifle and, when he got out to grab it, the victims pulled into the convenience store parking lot.
He approached and tried to fight one of the victims but left when he realized police were being called.
Police later tracked him down.
He said the victim’s vehicle had sped toward him as he was turning and that he barely avoided crashing with it.
The car brake-checked him when he followed, he said, and the victims yelled and flipped him off.
They continued to be upset when he tried to speak with them calmly, he said, and he drove away.
“The defendant denied having a rifle or even owning any type of firearm,” the probable cause statement says. “He denied there was anything in his vehicle that could even be construed to be a rifle. He seemed baffled that anyone would accuse him of this.”
It was as an officer took him to a patrol car that the suspect allegedly said: “I have to be honest. There are assault rifle parts in my trunk but they never came out of the trunk.”
Investigators checked and found a .22 long rifle. The defendant’s name, court records show, was on the packaging.
This story was originally published August 2, 2019 at 6:00 AM.
