Road Rager tries to run me off the road

[prophet23]

The following incident happened to me about 4 hours ago.

Im heading to pick up some groceries at the Waterfront in Homestead and im taking I-376 to the exit to get there. This dark SUV is veering a little in the passing lane and im on the exit lane with the middle lane open. As our vehicles get close he swerves through 2 lanes of traffic and nearly takes out my front end. I honk the horn to let him know he nearly hit me and he responds by JAMMING his breaks trying to have me rear end him. I slow enough to avoid a crash and signal over and move around him. As I'm passing his windows down and hes Mother F'ing me and flippin me off and telling me to pull over. I simply continue to drive to my exit.

After I get off at the Squirrel Hill/Homestead exit I head toward the waterfront at which point the road goes from 2 lanes to 1. At this point the guy in the SUV has followed me, drops the hammer on the gas right at the choke point and pulls in front of me and schreeches to a stop. I jam my brakes, an enterprise truck swerves to the shoulder to miss rear ending me and the Road Rager hops out of his SUV and says "we're gonna do this" and mentions he has a gun and has his hands behind his back.

I don't wait for him to reveal what mystery is behind him, I pull out my .45, point it squarely at his chest and tell him to get back in his truck and drive away. He starts blathering on about how if I shoot him he is going to own me and how he has all these witnesses. This guy was obviously drunk. While keeping my eyes on the guy I ask the driver of the Enterprise truck to kindly call the police.

The SUV guy doesn't make any movements toward me, which in truth probably saved his life but he kept trying to distract me. Telling me to show the people who are honking that I have a gun on him, or he would point and say look, I have a witness over there. I kept my eyes on him and my 1911 on center mass. He keeps chattering on for what seems like an eternity and he says he can't wait for the cops to show up because I'M the bad guy. He was excited all right, till the sirens actually could be heard. He ran to his truck, i kept a bead on him in case he was going to make a move but he just high tailed it out of there as fast as he could.

Once the threat left, I holstered my pistol and waited for the sirens to arrive. The first officer on the scene asked me where the guy went, I gave him a quick description and the direction he went. There was another officer there who was with his family who called 911. Apparently a lot of people called 911 because the bottle neck caused a traffic jam in my lane and me holding this guy off was clearly visable to cars in the other lane. Of course, a lot of calls by people who didn't know any better said, "Road rage and a guy has a gun", so the police thought it was on me but quickly realized i was the victim.

Long story short, about 6 officers or so show up, I give a statement, they take down my information and the info of some of the witnesses, give me back my ID and LTCF, tell me to stay safe and send me on my way. They also asked if I wanted to pursue any charges on the guy. I said not really, but he's pretty drunk so if you catch him you have that. Action 4 news shows up just as im about to leave, one of the officers was going to clear traffic so i could get going unless i wanted to give a news interview. I dont know if it was how he said it or what but we both got a chuckle out of it.

A side note, the first officer on the scene and I had met a couple years ago when he responded to a MWAG call that was placed on me in Oakland. He asked if I remembered him and I did. Small world. He said they refer to me as the OC guy.

I gave my dad a call after i finished my grocery shopping because i was in a weird place and wanted to talk it out a little just to get it off my chest. Being so close to taking a man's life is draining. He told me to be thankful for the following:

1. The jackass didn't make me crash my buddies car.
2. He didn't get the drop on me with his gun and kill me.
3. I didn't have to take the life of a drunken asshole.

Amen dad...amen.

[PaBimmerGuy]

my only question is when did pitsburghers start using the gay description of I-376 instead of parkway east?

[RGeorge]

Good job, sir.

Your story made me reflect on the oblivious woman that cut me off this morning. I guess my day could have easily turned out like yours.

[BimmerJon]

I almost don't believe the story, because it is EXACTLY how things should play out.

Well done. On your part and the officers.

[Ricochet]

This will sound crazy, but was teh road rage asshole driving a dark blue or black Chevy SUV? Maybe a

I ask because we must have been ion the same area tonight and there was a dark blue or black Chevy SUV driving completely insane and almost hit me.

Either way, you did what was right and Im glad the LEO's were able to see that.
Rep incoming!

[andrewjs18]

glad you're ok!

[mrnyman]

You did great , and Kudos for not letting him distract you, it could have been ugly, the asshole dont know how lucky he is.

Mike

[prophet23]

This will sound crazy, but was teh road rage asshole driving a dark blue or black Chevy SUV? Maybe a

I ask because we must have been ion the same area tonight and there was a dark blue or black Chevy SUV driving completely insane and almost hit me.

Either way, you did what was right and Im glad the LEO's were able to see that.
Rep incoming!

Thats crazy because it was a dark american made SUV. I wasn't sure if it was a ford or chevy but yeah, sounds like the guy.

Even before this incident went down I was going to call the police and report the reckless driving. I should've taken down the license plate.

[The_War_Wagon]

Cool - a reason to watch WTAE in the morning!

Glad you're alright & NOT in cuffs, btw.

[Ricochet]

Thats crazy because it was a dark american made SUV. I wasn't sure if it was a ford or chevy but yeah, sounds like the guy.

Even before this incident went down I was going to call the police and report the reckless driving. I should've taken down the license plate.

This is what the SUV that almost rammed me tonight looked like (this one is black, but it could have been blue)