Road Rage Car Chase Ends in Court Hearing

There is a lot of injustice in the world but it doesn't feel real until it happens to you. Despite all of your best intentions to be a good person, sometimes you end up as the target of someone's bad day. You become a scapegoat for their bitter life, their lost dreams, their worst projections.

In July of 2025 I received a summons in the mail for a magistrate's hearing. I was potentially to be charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon. A crazed man had argued that I hit him with my car and then drove away. He then chased me in his SUV and attempted to run me off the road several times. We both told our stories to the police.

The following is the official statement that I gave to my lawyer.

My Statement

On July 5th, 2025 my girlfriend and I traveled to Cathay Pacific in Quincy to celebrate her birthday. We were in separate cars. Upon arrival I backed into an open parking spot. A guy in a Black Mercedes SUV aggressively backed into the spot next to me. He sat in his vehicle fidgeting, twitchy he appeared to be overstimulated.

The man in the Mercedes had pulled in at an awkward angle so when I tried to open my car door it might have tapped his door. At that moment I realized he was looking out his window at me and then rolled it down. He yelled at me in a shocking fit of anger. His exact words were, "Motherfucker did you hit my car?"

I closed my door and looked at his car. There was no sign of contact. I apologized in an attempt to calm him down, it did not work. He jumped out of his car and ran over to my window. He looked at his car then glared at me and said, "I ought to pull you out that window and kick your ass for what you did to my car!"

Again I was caught off guard at how enraged he was. I rolled up my window as he mumbled something threatening. This felt like a clear case of road rage. I sat there in my car terrified that he was going to escalate this incident. He moved past my driver side window towards the back of his car. I feared he was going to retrieve a weapon. 

For 5 years I worked as an airport shuttle driver for Florida Sunshine Express. They taught us that in a potentially dangerous situation that the right thing to do was escape to a safe location and contact the authorities. When the man was no longer in view I pulled straight out of the parking spot then turned left into the parking lot and right onto the street.

As soon as I reached the road I called my girlfriend and explained to her that I had to escape from this guy. I was very upset and I told her that I was not going back there. She understood and tried to calm me down while we discussed finding the local police station.

I had driven a mile up the road when I saw car headlights swerving behind me. Suddenly a car was right behind me on my tail. As I turned around a rotary circle the car passed me on the right, it pulled in front of me and slammed on its brakes. That is when I recognized that it was the same Black Mercedes SUV. I hit my brakes and pulled to the right to go around it. The car followed me.

Still on the phone with my girlfriend I told her that the guy is chasing me. I was freaking out. She said I needed to call the police. My heart was pounding and my hands were shaking. I was having trouble pushing the buttons on my phone because his SUV kept racing up beside me. I saw that he was holding up his phone to the window of his car perhaps filming me or taking my picture. I remember that his phone casing was purple.

The SUV pulled in front of me again slammed on its brakes and tried to block the road. This time the driver's side door opened wide. I thought he was going to start shooting at me. I swerved hard to the right, my front tires squealed as I barely managed to get away. Once again he followed. I attempted twice to make last second turns to get him off my tail but it didn't work. 

I finally got through to the Quincy police and told them that I was being chased. A female voice took my info. At that point I'm unclear of what else might have been said because this time he came up on my right side and tried to slam me into a concrete wall. I hit my brakes hard and pulled to the right, he narrowly missed me.

I must have dropped the call with the police because moments later I was calling my girlfriend back. I was pulling onto the highway in hopes that he might abandon the chase now that I was leaving town. He continued to follow me onto the highway. I tried to call my girlfriend but she was already in touch with the police. I believe the dispatcher called me back. She told me to return to the restaurant. She said a hit and run had been reported at the restaurant. I didn't understand why she was telling me this. I assumed that she meant that police were responding to a different incident at the same location. She said there would be police there to help me.

I pulled into the back of the restaurant as specified by the dispatcher. I pulled up to a police car and requested them to please keep the guy away from me. I explained that he had threatened me then chased me in his SUV and tried to run me off the road multiple times. The man in the SUV pulled in after me but the police did not arrest him. I couldn't understand why. If I had a dash cam he would be in jail. This man could have killed me! The officers explained to me that they were listening to both sides of the story. I was kept out of view on the opposite side of the Police Cruiser where I could hear the man yelling at the officers.

I told the officers my full story and then had to sit down because I was shaking so bad. My girlfriend returned to the restaurant and she helped calm me down. She also listened to what the other driver was saying to the police. The officers explained what was going to happen as a result of all of this. They apologized, gave me a case number and sent me on my way.

Conclusion

While the crazed man had successfully drawn the attention away from himself and his actual crimes by accusing me of false crimes, it didn't change the fact that he had no evidence. He was uncooperative and irate towards the authorities. He also seemed to be accusing the police of racism but only until my girlfriend walked over to take pictures of his car. When he saw that she too is African American, he suddenly stopped talking.

Three days later I received a summons in the mail. Despite my wild and adventurous life, I have never been accused of a serious crime. There were plenty of youthful indiscretions that I was lucky to have escaped from unharmed but none of them were like this.

I was in emotional distress for two full months during the waiting period. I had nightmares about the car chase and feared retribution from the crazed man. I had to pay thousands of dollars for a lawyer just to make sure I gave myself every possible advantage in court. During that time I fell into a full blown depression.

I had two big problems, the first was that fear had left me frozen. I didn't know how to emotionally respond to the situation. My depression turned to anger. I hated this man for putting me through this. One day I went for a hike in Pratt Farm and convinced myself that I had to let the anger go or it would eat me alive. In my heart I had to forgive this man and instead focus on winning the case.

The second problem was that I wasn't sure how to establish my narrative. I had been in traffic court a couple times and won those cases by creating a clean story for the judge to follow. I knew I had to do the same here. After reading the police report and then discovering that the crazed man failed to file an insurance claim, I had a better idea of who I was dealing with. Now I had the fuel to establish a justified line between his accusations and my reality.

That's why I wrote the statement above using the voice of an innocent person who was in fear but acting to save his own life in a dangerous situation. Along with the statement I included four short paragraphs that described all of the best parts of myself, my job experience and my volunteer work. I used just the right words and phrases to show my consideration for others, my civic engagement and gave a sliver of the inspiration that I have shared with so many people through the years.

The statement and paragraphs were true but they didn't need to be. Unfortunately what matters more than truth is the perception of civility. Anyone who is capable of writing such a detailed account of events and then follows it by proclaiming a virtuous and yet humble life is likely a person with vast education and high intelligence. In order words, I created the perception of someone so credible and responsible that they would never commit such a crime.

My lawyer spoke to the police prosecutor and showed him my statement along with the paragraphs. He also explained that I had no criminal record and was only living in the state temporarily in order to take care of my elderly mother. The police prosecutor had no interest in pursuing the case. The crazed man never showed up. The charge was erased.

The abrupt outcome shocked me. It was exactly what I was working towards but it came about so quickly that it took time to adjust to the new reality. It would be a few days before I felt the weight released from my shoulders. I got to see for myself that the system sometimes works exactly the way it is supposed to.

My only crime was going to the wrong restaurant on the wrong night. In the end my lawyer said it best, "The nightmare is over. Justice is served."