MILLERSVILLE, Md. — Road rage incidents are difficult for police.
Take the man who reported passing another vehicle on Belle Grove Road in Brooklyn in the wee hours of the morning Tuesday and coming under fire.
“Was it a road rage type incident where the individual was mad at him for passing him or was there some other motive that we are not yet aware of?” said Marc Limansky of the Anne Arundel County Police Department.
Then there’s the case of 51-year-old Scott Gushe of Glen Burnie who was gunned down by a motorcyclist last week on Furnace Branch Road after allegedly coming at him with a hammer, although an investigation continues into the shooter’s account of those events.
The nearby owner of Against Our Odds Vape Shop, Hyung Chang, says his surveillance cameras are of no help.
“My camera was probably only about 20 feet shy of where it happened, but there’s nothing on there at all,” said Chang.
Whatever happened, road rage knows no limits, and Maryland State Police launched an initiative back in mid-July specifically targeting such incidents.
Criminal investigators move quickly to get vehicle descriptions, dash cam video when possible and even search warrants to track down the suspects.
In four months, they’ve made 16 arrests and have seized 19 weapons.
Back at the vape shop, Chang says it’s a start, but he’s witnessed plenty of other road rage incidents along this stretch of roads in recent months.
“A guy actually pulled into our lot. That’s when he caught my attention,” said Chang, “Spun around, got out of his car, screaming at each other, got back in his car and took off and a bunch of cops showed up. The guy across the street said that he saw them pull a gun out.”
Along with enforcement efforts, Chang says it’s up to motorists to adjust their behavior before road misbehavior results in violence.
“People just need to learn to let things go,” said Chang, “There’s, I would say, 99 percent of these cases. It’s a simple decision. Yes, they wronged me. You might be 100 percent in the right, but it takes no effort at all to say, ‘You know what? I’m not going to let it bother me.”
