Road-rage shooting on I-5 a harsh reminder

What led up to the fatal road-rage shooting on I-5 at the King-Pierce county line Thursday afternoon remains unknown, but it’s a harsh reminder of one simple rule: Don’t get out of your car.

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A 60-year-old man was reportedly shot by a 23-year-old woman during what the Washington State Patrol is calling a physical altercation during a road-rage incident. At one point, according to a trooper, the man and woman were fighting on the ground, which is the woman pulled out a gun and shot the man.

The man, the driver of a passenger vehicle, died at the scene. The woman, who was riding a motorcycle, called 911 and has been cooperative.

KIRO Radio’s John Curley says it goes to show that you never know when someone is armed.

“Everyone will tell you, don’t get out of the car … And don’t get into a physical altercation.

“If the woman felt her life was in jeopardy and she could legally conceal a weapon; she shoots the guy and kills him.”

It’s unclear at this time whether the woman was justified in her use of a firearm. The Washington State Patrol has not released specific details into what led up to the confrontation and who, as John puts it, “threw the first punch.”

State law says homicide is justifiable when “there is reasonable ground to apprehend a design on the part of the person slain to commit a felony or to do some great personal injury to the slayer or to any such person, and there is imminent danger of such design being accomplished,” or, “In the actual resistance of an attempt to commit a felony upon the slayer, in his or her presence, or upon or in a dwelling, or other place of abode, in which he or she is.”

Whatever the outcome is, the incident is a tragic one. Both the driver and motorcyclist likely had the same goal, according to John. That was to make it home safe.

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