Road Rage

Maryland State Police said yesterday they are seeking a driver in an apparent road-rage shooting on southbound Interstate 795 in Owings Mills that left a Hampstead woman with a bullet wound in the foot. Just before midnight Friday, police say, a motorist pulled alongside a Chevrolet Blazer driven by Everett L. Poole, 32, of Lineboro and fired a single shot into the Blazer's passenger door, grazing the foot of passenger Josie M. Steger, 31, of Hampstead. The shooter continued south on I-795 as Poole pulled over.

An incident of road rage in Gambrills Monday led to a stabbing, a two-car crash and an arrest, police said. Ross Brandon Sudbrook, 23, of Old Riverside Drive in Baltimore, has been charged with assault and reckless endangerment as a result of the stabbing. Police found several injured people and two heavily damaged vehicles at about 4 p.m. near the intersection of Route 3 north and Churchview Road. A Ford Explorer and a PT Cruiser were in a drainage ditch. Investigators said the accident and assault stemmed from an altercation between the driver of the Explorer and a 23-year-old male passenger in the other car. Police said that the driver and passenger in the Explorer exchanged seats on at least one occasion at another intersection along Route 3 and the delay led to an exchange of words between the occupants of the two vehicles.

SOMEWHERE IN the Declaration of Independence there seems to be a clause about the rights of Westerners to drive their off-road vehicles wherever they durn well please. Or maybe it's in the Emancipation Proclamation. Or the Ten Commandments. Whatever. What's right is right - and no federal G-man is going to keep the Utahan off his chosen path. Come to think of it, it looks like no G-man even wants to try. There's all this land out there, and just because it's owned by all the people of the United States (the government)

A 34-year-old Joppa man was charged Wednesday with first-degree assault and reckless endangerment after allegedly firing shots at another vehicle while driving north on Interstate 95 near the exit for Route 152. No one was injured in the incident, state troopers said. The suspect, Nicholas Heider, could face additional charges from the Harford County State's Attorney's Office, according to troopers. The other driver involved said the dispute started over a disagreement over right-of-way between the drivers near Exit 67. The two men gestured at each other and cut each other off, troopers said.

A 25-year-old man who shot and injured a man in a downtown parking lot — and then was promptly arrested by a nearby Baltimore City SWAT team — was charged Sunday with attempted murder. James Edward Johnson had no criminal record before he was picked up by officers about 3 a.m. Sunday in a parking lot next to the city's impound lot adjacent to I-83. Now, he faces charges of first- and second-degree attempted murder, first- and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and handgun violations, according to police department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.

An incident of road rage in Gambrills Monday led to a stabbing, a two-car crash and an arrest, police said. Ross Brandon Sudbrook, 23, of Old Riverside Drive in Baltimore, has been charged with assault and reckless endangerment as a result of the stabbing. Police found several injured people and two heavily damaged vehicles at about 4 p.m. near the intersection of Route 3 north and Churchview Road. A Ford Explorer and a PT Cruiser were in a drainage ditch. Investigators said the accident and assault stemmed from an altercation between the driver of the Explorer and a 23-year-old male passenger in the other car. Police said that the driver and passenger in the Explorer exchanged seats on at least one occasion at another intersection along Route 3 and the delay led to an exchange of words between the occupants of the two vehicles.

A 22-year-old Randallstown man has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with a road-rage shooting that killed a 16-year-old girl and a 32-year-old man near Bolton Hill, records show. Tavon Spruell of the 3800 block of Cherrybrook Road was taken into custody Friday and ordered held without bail, according to computerized court records. Hostilities leading to the shooting began about 5:40 p.m. Feb. 27 in West Baltimore when a Ford Crown Victoria containing a man and three teens nearly collided with a Jetta that Spruell was driving, according to charging papers prepared by city homicide detective Corey Alston.

When I read a recent survey that rated Baltimore and Washington among the nation's top five cities for road rage, I thought back to a driving incident about 10 years ago. While visiting D.C. from my home in Boston, I triggered the angst of an officer who pulled me over on New York Avenue. "Did you know that you ran that yellow light back there?" the policewoman scolded while inspecting my Massachusetts driver's license. I sat momentarily stunned, my mouth wide open. Did she say yellow light?

The most compelling of the many messages in response to last week's column about road rage came without a name or return e-mail address. The unknown writer said she visited University of Hawaii psychologist Leon James' Web site, as recommended in the column. She said she "saw [herself] in some of the people described there." "Quite scary," she wrote. A particular description struck home: "In a kind of Jekyll-and-Hyde effect, perfectly ordinary, friendly, good-hearted people tend to become extremely intolerant and anti-social as soon as they get behind the wheel.

A 26-year-old Severn man has been charged with murder and other crimes in a killing that police believe was prompted by road rage. James William King, who has an extensive record of traffic violations and other offenses, was arrested Tuesday night at his home in the 800 block of Crest Hill Drive, according to a spokesman for the Anne Arundel County police. King was charged with first-degree murder, assault, reckless endangerment and two other counts, and was being held without bail at the Jennifer Road Detention Center.

The report by WJZ-TV's Mike Hellgren is a serious one about a suspect in a road rage incident along I-83. The attack took place about 10 p.m. Friday night near the Maryland-Pennsylvania state line. It should be noted that the station has handled the story with the gravity and concern the subject matter and the victim's pain deserves. But what has some of the Internet buzzing is the resemblance between the suspect in a police sketch that accompanies the story and Hellgren, who is reporting the crime.

Maryland State Police are searching for a man who they said rear-ended a woman's vehicle on Interstate 83 in Parkton, offered her money to not call police and then violently attacked her when she dialed 911 on her cell phone. The incident occurred about 10 p.m. Friday south of the Pennsylvania line, in the northbound lanes near Exit 33. Police said a man driving a dark-colored Jeep Wrangler with a soft top, possibly with Pennsylvania license plates, hit the back of the woman's car. Both drivers pulled over and police said the man "pleaded with her, offering her money to settle the incident.

A 25-year-old man who shot and injured a man in a downtown parking lot — and then was promptly arrested by a nearby Baltimore City SWAT team — was charged Sunday with attempted murder. James Edward Johnson had no criminal record before he was picked up by officers about 3 a.m. Sunday in a parking lot next to the city's impound lot adjacent to I-83. Now, he faces charges of first- and second-degree attempted murder, first- and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and handgun violations, according to police department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.

A Severn man charged in what the Anne Arundel County State's Attorney's Office called "a cold-blooded execution" was taken into custody on Thursday after he had been released on bond by a District Court judge last week. James William King Jr., 26, who was charged in the August 6 shooting death of Calvin Chi Man Yeung, 40, appeared in a District Court hearing Thursday rescinding his bond set by District Court Judge Jonas Legum last week. King, who has seven prior convictions on charges that include assault, an escape from home detention and drug offenses, posted bond and was released Friday.

A 26-year-old Severn man has been charged with murder and other crimes in a killing that police believe was prompted by road rage. James William King, who has an extensive record of traffic violations and other offenses, was arrested Tuesday night at his home in the 800 block of Crest Hill Drive, according to a spokesman for the Anne Arundel County police. King was charged with first-degree murder, assault, reckless endangerment and two other counts, and was being held without bail at the Jennifer Road Detention Center.

Have you ever driven 40 mph or more on a street posted at 25 mph? I have – though I have attempted to restrain myself in recent years – and I suspect most Maryland motorists have done so at one time or another. Like many of us, I've been lucky too in that I've never been caught speeding except on a major highway. But a demonstration this week of how even what most of us consider minor increases in speed affect the ability to stop for a pedestrian brought home the reality of how dangerous it is to flout the posted limits.

IF YOU DO MUCH DRIVING on our nation's highways, you've probably noticed that, more and more often, bullets are coming through your windshield.This is a common sign of Road Rage, which the opinion-makers in the news media have decided is a serious problem, currently ranking just behind global warming and several points ahead of Asia.How widespread is Road Rage?To answer that question, researchers for the National Institute of Traffic Safety recently did a study in which they drove on the interstate highway system in a specially equipped observation van. By the third day, they were deliberately running other motorists off the road.

Maryland State Police have arrested a tractor-trailer driver for pointing a fake gun at a dump truck driver Friday on the Baltimore Beltway. Troopers arrested the driver, Johnathan Maniah Adams, of Fort Worth, Texas. Adams was being held at the Baltimore County jail. - Associated Press