Spate of road-rage attacks across city
Danney Ball
Spate of road-rage attacks across city
By Alison Soltau
Staff
Writer
Published: Sunday, May 8, 2005 11:40 PM PDT
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Motorists have stabbed, pistol-whipped and bashed fellow drivers in a recent
surge in road-rage violence on city streets, police said.
A driver is
being sought for chasing and bashing a pedestrian on Kearny Street on May 3
around 8 a.m., according to police. The injured pedestrian told officers the
confrontation began when he thumped his attacker's car because the motorist
drove dangerously close to him as he crossed an unidentified block of Kearny
Street.
The pedestrian said the driver jumped out of the car, chased him,
beat him to the ground and kicked him in the face, before driving away, Capt.
Steven Tacchini said in a recent police report to residents.
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In the Mission District, a man frustrated at being stuck behind a 29-year-old
motorist who was double-parked at 18th and Guerrero streets April 19, viciously
stabbed the man in the abdomen and shoulder, said Lt. Dan Leydon. He said the
suspect, who is still at large, yelled at the man who was double-parked, and
both men leapt from their cars and began a physical fight. Leydon said the
suspect pulled out a four-inch knife and stabbed the man in front of his
horrified wife and baby daughter.
The suspect, a Hispanic man, about 5
feet 4 inches tall and 250 pounds, with a goatee, was driving a red Ford pickup
with two passengers. The victim is expected to survive, Leydon said.
In a
bizarre Bayview neighborhood case, a man was charged with aggravated assault and
battery after he allegedly pistol-whipped two women after their car crashed into
his vehicle on Third Street near Paul Avenue on April 30 at 11:40 a.m., police
said. The women allege that in the moments before the accident, the man honked
his horn and yelled at them for driving "too slow," according to a Bayview
district police report to residents. The women allege the man's car cut in front
of theirs and slowed suddenly, causing them to crash into him. The man then
allegedly stormed up to the women's car, removed the keys and pistol-whipped
them. The man summoned police to the accident scene. The women waited until the
man left the scene, then told officers about the alleged assault and the man was
arrested at his home, the police report said.
Police did not have statistics on road-rage violence on Sunday. Leydon said
it wasn't rife, but seemed to happen "in waves".
"Peoples' manners are
just a thing of the past; people are less civil to each other these days," he
said.
E-mail: aso...@examiner.com
