[Car Knocker]

Gun comes out during West Jordan road rage incident
By Russ Rizzo
The Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated: 04/28/2008 03:42:29 PM MDT

Posted: 3:43 PM- A man found himself on the ground with a loaded gun pointed at him following a road-rage incident in West Jordan over the weekend.
Police said a 42-year-old West Jordan man driving in a Jeep Liberty cut off a female driver outside Jordan's Landing, near the intersection of 3500 West and 9000 South, about 9 p.m. Saturday. The woman then forced the man out of the lane, resulting in an exchange of "words and gestures" between a male passenger in her car and the other driver, according to a police report.
The Jeep driver followed the car to a nearby parking lot, got out and was pushed to the ground by the passenger, police said. The driver of the Jeep stood up, pulled out a handgun and told the man to get on the ground, racking the gun so that a bullet entered the chamber, police said. The man complied, and witnesses called 911, police said. Officers booked the man after a short hospital visit into the Salt Lake County jail on suspicion of aggravated assault, police said.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_9085761
*********************
Another genius with a gun!

 

[Paul]

So which man did the cops book? I couldn't quite tell from the story. Sounds to me like they both should get booked for being stupid.

 

[Car Knocker]

Now that you point it out, it is a bit ambiguous as to exactly who got arrested. I'll see if I can find the story elsewhere.

 

[GeneticsDave]

Yeah, the reporting on this story is terrible, not surprising as it is the Tribune.

First, if this guy knows anything about being a responsible permit holder he would have done everything in his power to avoid this confrontation.

That being said, he was assaulted by the passenger from the other vehicle and had to go to the hospital - so perhaps he was thrown down in such a manner or threatened by the passenger in such a way that he felt his life was in danger.

With the lack of details in this story it is difficult to determine what exactly happened (not that the media could ever give us that, but a clearer picture would be helpful). Still I do not condone the gun holder's actions - he should have taken the offense in stride and done everything possible to avoid confrontation.

 

[Jeff Johnson]

...
First, if this guy knows anything about being a responsible permit holder he would have done everything in his power to avoid this confrontation.
...

Hmm. I didn't see anything in the story that would indicate he had a CFP. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't, but I cannot draw that conclusion.

Whether or not he did, it was dumb to escalate a confrontation.

 

[GeneticsDave]

Yeah, I know it doesn't say anything about a permit. I wasn't really assuming he has one, just kind of saying that with a CFP, you should get the education to avoid these things if at all possible - he should have been trained better. Sorry for any confusion.

 

[xmirage2kx]

If it happened the way it looked in the news story I would say the gun owner is the one in trouble. You can't follow a car into a parking lot, start a fight and lose then pull out your gun (in most cases anyways).

 

[bane]

Based on the aweful reporting on this story... I wonder whether or not it's possible the guy in the Jeep wasn't pulling into the parking lot to "fight" (I never saw mention of an actual fight in the article) or to attempt to call the cops and press charges... ??? After all, being "forced out of the lane" would amount to running someone off the road.

 

[divegeek]

It's really unclear, but it's possible that the Jeep-driving gun owner found himself facing attack by two people, which, depending on how it went down, might well justify deadly force. However, the fact that he appears to have initiated the confrontation does not bode well for him.

I'm pretty sure that it's the gun owner who's been charged. There's no mention of the male passenger of the other vehicle having a weapon, and "aggravated" assault requires use of a weapon, IIRC.

 

[Kevin Jensen]

West Jordan man driving in a Jeep Liberty cut off a female driver

Ok, Guy in a Jeep VS a Female.

The woman then forced the man out of the lane, resulting in an exchange of "words and gestures" between a male passenger in her car and the other driver

Female has a male passenger.

The Jeep driver followed the car to a nearby parking lot, got out and was pushed to the ground by the passenger

After cutting them off, and following them, he was pushed to the ground by the male passenger in the female's vehicle.

The driver of the Jeep stood up, pulled out a handgun and told the man to get on the ground, racking the gun so that a bullet entered the chamber

The man that cut them off and followed them to the parking lot got up after being pushed to the ground pulled a gun, then loaded it. Brilliant!

Officers booked the man after a short hospital visit into the Salt Lake County jail on suspicion of aggravated assault

This leads me to believe the driver of the Jeep, the man who cut them off and pulled a gun was arrested. His injuries probably came from the male passenger that pushed him to the ground.

 

[bane]

SGT, thanks for the point-by-point summary... reading it made it clear that I had misunderstood who had cut-off whom... I had been under the impression that it was the woman who had cut-off the Jeep instead of the other way around. If this story is even close to correct it would seem the Jeep driver was indeed guilty.

 

[marksman]

This article is to vague to glean who is guilty. It could have easily played out like this.

Guy in jeep is in a rush and accidentally cuts of another driver (bad behavior but who hasn't accidentally cut someone else off). Other driver gets ticked and attempts to get back at him by pushing him out of the lane. Guy in jeep avoids being hit by other driver and assumes that confrontation is over then continues on to his destination. Ticked off Girl follows Jeep Guy to his destination at which time her and her boyfriend get out and begin to beat Jeep guy (apparently badly enough he required hospitalization). Guy manages to get up and afraid for his life draws his weapon to defend himself.

I'm not saying that is how this all went down but from the lousy article it's just as likely as the other way around.

 

[Car Knocker]

I e-mailed the reporter for a clarification on who got arrested.