Road rage leads to shooting - from
Toronto Star Nov. 8, 2006. 12:54 PM
TAMARA CHERRY
STAFF REPORTER
It started with an unsafe lane change and quickly escalated into a shooting on a Mississauga highway yesterday afternoon.
A 23-year-old Toronto man was driving a delivery van on Highway 401 westbound onto the ramp at Mavis Rd. when the driver of a tractor-trailer pulled in front of him without signalling, forcing him over, he told police.
He caught up with the tractor-trailer, pulled up beside him and began an ill-advised confrontation.
"(It) started with back and forth gestures and yelling and screaming at each other through the window," Woodford said.
The truck driver rolled his passenger side window down, pulled out a handgun and shot at the man, police were told.
"It didn’t look like it hit anything that we can see on the delivery van," Woodford said.
The van driver pulled over and called police.
About a half hour later, police stopped a 34-year-old trucker from Detroit, Mi. in the Cambridge area.
The sudden violence of the incident surprised the police.
"Sometimes you get a firearm, which could be a replica or something, but never a shot being fired," he said, adding even pulling out a fake firearm is rare.
"We do get some calls for more serious (road rage incidents) when they pull over and an assault takes place on a pretty frequent basis, a couple a month," he said. "Road rage is quite frequent in the area, but not to this extent ... It’s sort of scary."
Charges are pending further investigation, but police are looking at such charges as mischief, endandering life, uttering threats to cause death, pointing a firearm, discharging a firearm with intent to endanger life and possession of a firearm for dangerous purpose, Woodford said.
The fact that their suspect crossed the border with a firearm is worrisome, he said.
"We know that the gun was not registered and he didn’t have a license for a firearm, so how did it come in from the States? That’s the big question we asked ... Maybe we should be doing more checks."
In March of last year, an inconsiderate driving manoeuvre and a serious case of road rage apparently preceded a brazen daylight shooting in Toronto’s east end.
It started when a 27-year-old man driving north on Pape Ave. cut off another vehicle with two occupants heading in the same direction in the afternoon of March 18. The driver of the second vehicle shouted at the first and made an obscene gesture before all three men got out of their vehicles and got into a shoving match at Pape and Gamble Aves., police said.
After the fight, the two men continued taunting the 27-year-old driver of the first vehicle and followed his car until he pulled over again. The passenger in the second van then pulled out a gun and shot the man in the stomach while he sat in his car, police said. He was taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries.
In July of last year, a traffic stop, noise complaint and a road rage episode led to the seizure of weapons and six arrests.
On July 22, two drivers traveling east on Finch Ave. W. got into a dispute before a passenger in one of the cars pointed a handgun at the people in the other car. Police were called and found the suspect’s vehicle. Two men and a teen were arrested and two handguns, along with ammunition and crack cocaine, were seized.
