*I kid you not*: Road Rage turns into drive-by crossbow shooting (only in AR)

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette ^ | 17 OCT 06 | dcbryan1

[DCBryan1]

Road rage builds on I-630 until arrow hits Camaro

Road rage took a decidedly medieval turn Sunday when a Little Rock man was arrested after police said he attempted to settle a traffic dispute with a crossbow.

Police said Wayne Allen Dierks Jr., 26, of 300 Walnut St. in Little Rock fired a crossbow at a motorist who had made an obscene gesture at him. Dierks was charged with committing a terroristic act, possession of an instrument of crime, driving while intoxicated and driving on a suspended driver’s license.

“It was a drive-by crossbow shooting,” said Steve Gilgenbach, a University of Arkansas Little Rock student who was driving the Camaro police said Dierks shot at. “I’ve never been shot at by a crossbow before.”

Gilgenbach, a pitcher on the UALR baseball team, said he was on his way to his west Little Rock apartment after practice and was pulling onto Interstate 630 at Fair Park Boulevard when the trouble began.

“I was merging on the highway and I had to get in, so I cut the guy off,” Gilgenbach admitted. “He started following me, cursing at me and yelling for me to pull over.”

According to a police report, Gilgenbach admitted he had made an obscene gesture at Dierks, who was driving a Ford Explorer. On Monday, though, Gilgenbach said he couldn’t remember gesturing at Dierks.

The pursuit continued for several miles to the end of Interstate 630 and onto Financial Centre Parkway. “We stopped at several stoplights and he was trying to get me to stop because he wanted to fight me,” Gilgenbach said.

As the two drivers neared the Bowman Road intersection, Dierks made the next move.

[monday]

"So far my list is rocks, bottles, bullets, and long bow, the arrow incident happened in Albuquerque."

lol.... You don't sound very popular. Why all the hostility?

[april15Bendovr]

[CharlesWayneCT]

There's no indication he went in too slow, more likely the other driver was passing on the right, and when he saw the merger he sped up to keep him from coming in.

The right thing to do if you are in the right lane is to slow down a bit to let the incoming traffic merge smoothly.

But you know, the other guy was DRIVING WITH A CROSSBOW IN HIS CAR. That has to tell you something about his state of mind. It's not like he drove home and GOT his cross-bow and brought it back, he already had it IN HIS CAR AND ACCESSIBLE, like he was looking for trouble.

So that's my real question -- why was the guy driving around with a loaded crossbow in the front seat of his car?

[techcor]

Clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop, thwiitttt, clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop.

[Mad Dawg]

Dierks was charged with committing a terroristic act...

Puh-LEEZE!

Too frequent use of a word renders it meaningless. Please drop the trendy idea that every little criminal act is "terrorism."

That's a HUGE 10-4.

[ansel12]

A man can't live an exciting life without getting shot at occasionally.

[sweetliberty]

"we stayed right there at the 'Holiday Inn Select' just a few weeks ago."

"Select," doubtless because of the live entertainment available from the comfort of your hotel room.

[monday]

"Dierks was charged with committing a terroristic act... "

---

"This is the creepy part of the story"

I think the "terroristic" part is chasing the other car trying to get it to stop so that he could fight. If you threaten another with physical violence, you are by definition "terrorizing" them. The cross bow part was probably just 'assault', not 'terrorizing'.

Even if he had not shot at the guy with a cross bow, chasing, and terrorizing someone with your car is illegal. It's a "terroristic act". Don't think that terror acts are only perpetrated by professional terrorists. Any bully can terrorize people, even amateur bullies.

[Mad Dawg]

I think the charge of 'terroristic act' is perfectly appropriate.

Here's why I disagree. If one-on-one violence, even if it inadvertently threatens the safety of others, is called terroristic, what shall we call acts which are assymetrical, one (or few) on many, and designed precisely to obstruct commerce and limit the exercise of freedoms by making people afraid?

We already have aggravated assault for acts like the one described. The problem with language inflation is that it impoverishes those who rely on language, which would be most of us ... okay, except democrats.

[sweetliberty]

"Why all the hostility?"

He keeps flipping people off on the highway?

[GnuHere]

Ah, the dreaded Amish drive-by crossbow shooting?

[BronzePencil]

Yes, back in 1994.

In Massachusetts in 1994, a church deacon fatally shot a medical technician in the chest with a crossbow during a highway argument.

[trisham]

One would think that with all the liberals here in MA, violence would have declined.

[techcor]

Yep. Glad somebody got it.

[SlowBoat407]

In order to go truly medieval mount a trebuchet on your car!!!!

Time to unpimp ze auto

[monday]

"If one-on-one violence, even if it inadvertently threatens the safety of others, is called terroristic, what shall we call acts which are assymetrical, one (or few) on many, and designed precisely to obstruct commerce and limit the exercise of freedoms by making people afraid?"

I understand what you mean. You want one word for "ordinary criminal terrorizing" and another for "organized ideological terrorizing". Perhaps you should coin new terms? Right now we are stuck with a single term for both.

It's just unfortunate that all the ideological terrorism happening currently makes us automatically assume that all terrorism is of the ideological type. Professional criminals as well as bullies have long used terroristic tactics to intimidate their victims. It is actually a much more common type of terrorism, but it doesn't make the headlines.

[ReignOfError]

I think the charge of 'terroristic act' is perfectly appropriate.

Here's why I disagree. If one-on-one violence, even if it inadvertently threatens the safety of others, is called terroristic, what shall we call acts which are assymetrical, one (or few) on many, and designed precisely to obstruct commerce and limit the exercise of freedoms by making people afraid?

Then lobby your state representatives to re-word the law. Terroristic threats have been a criminal offense since long before terrorism became a commonly-used word. It isn't "language inflation," an attempt to link mere criminal violence to international terrorism -- it's just a coincidental collision of language.

[lapsus calami]

 

 

How about a drive-by arrow-ing.

 

Years ago some character I knew in high school got PO'ed at some people, and he had a friend that had a convertible '73 Chevy Caprice. The friend drove while he pincushioned the mobile home of the object of his ire using a compound bow. He used practice arrows but that doesn't diminish the potential for lethality by much. No one got hurt thankfully, probably due to the attack being carried out very late at night while everyone was in bed (horizontal) and not up walking around, and that the guy aimed high.

 

 

[TC Rider]

"we stayed right there at the 'Holiday Inn Select' just a few weeks ago."

"Select," doubtless because of the live entertainment available from the comfort of your hotel room.

The best entertainment was on the curb in front of the hotel. Myself and around a dozen other shooters gathered there after the banquet to smoke cigars and drink whiskey. Included in the group were easily a half dozen Master class shooters, a couple of LEOs, some retired Marines, 2 FBI agents, one HRT and one CounterIntel.

Around 10PM a junker car pulls into the reception area and after a few minutes a little gangbanger hops out. He had on funky red pants pulled halfway down his legs with a matching hat turned sideways on his head.

He sized up the crowd and went right to 'Bill', the retired Marine. Let's just say the gangbanger chose poorly.

He pulled 'Bill' out of the crowd and laid some kind of pitch on him. We heard Bill tell him to take off or he'd kill him. Bill told us later that he was trying to sell him some MPG pills to put in your gas tank.

[sweetliberty]

LOL! I thought you were going to say that you got to have target practice right there at the hotel...with the hotel providing suggesting the targets.