AKRON, Ohio — Akron Police decided to charge a 39-year-old man in an Akron road rage incident despite self-defense claims due to additional witness accounts and evidence.
News 5 has new information on a road rage incident in the area of South Arlington and East Market Street that turned violent.
This comes after Akron Police Captain Michael Miller released 911 calls, including from the 39-year-old man involved.
“A guy hit my car. He was in the bike lane, and I wouldn’t let him over into my lane. He hit my car and when I yelled at him, he pulled a gun on me, and I shot back at him,” said the 39-year-old suspect.
Originally, Captain Michael Miller said they listed the 39-year-old driver and the 78-year-old man, who suffered a gunshot wound to the face, as both victims and suspects.
But Miller said things changed after he said officers vetted the 39-year-old’s self-defense claim and then compared it to what witnesses said with additional physical and digital evidence and decided to charge him with felonious assault.
“We were at a stop, and I cussed him out and told him to pull over and he pulled a gun out on me,” said the 39-year-old suspect.
“They just did not believe, the detectives as a collective, that the explanation or the self-defense component of that was really had any merit,” Miller said.
According to preliminary reports, a minor accident involving two vehicles occurred on East Market Street when police said the victim's vehicle sideswiped the other vehicle, leaving minor damage.
Authorities said the 39-year-old driver of the other vehicle allegedly fired multiple shots, with one striking the victim and 911 callers assisting until crews arrived.
“He’s got a pink rag around his face right now,” said one 911 caller.
After the shooting, police said the 39-year-old man left the scene.
That’s when the man eventually called dispatch, and officers located him and took him into custody without further incident.
“We don't believe that the victim did anything to provoke or cause the circumstance to happen to him. This really rests solely with the individual deciding to escalate something that was initially just a minor accident and choosing to use a firearm,” said Miller.
Miller said the 39-year-old man’s perspective is not for his department to determine at this point beyond the initial investigation.
As for the 78-year-old man, Miller said he is expected to survive.
