Dash camera catches road rage incident of driver pointing gun at man

By Kim Powell

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    AVONDALE, Arizona (KTVK, KPHO) — Avondale Police are investigating a road rage incident over the weekend where a man pointed a gun at another driver.

Fransisco Garcia said he was driving home from the movies on McDowell Road when he noticed a black Dodge Durango drifting into his lane. “I was on the left lane, and he was just going to my lane drifting in and out; I don’t know if he was texting,” Garcia said.

Garcia explained he recently got his car back after a crash a few months ago and was trying to avoid getting hit again. “I actually just went around in his lane and cut him off and went around again and took off because, by the time I cut him off, he was honking, so I know he was mad,” Garcia said, adding he sped up down the road to avoid a confrontation. “I know what I did was wrong; that was my fault for that, but that doesn’t justify me almost losing my life over a little cutoff.”

Garcia said he drove about a mile down the road, thinking the situation was over. However, when he pulled up to a red light in the left turn lane at McDowell Road and Avondale Boulevard, he noticed the Durango pull behind him and the driver get out of the vehicle.

Garcia said he turned his dash camera towards him to record whatever was about to happen. “When he came up to me, I point at the dashcam first; when I looked left, I see the barrel of the gun on my face,” Garcia said. “Actually, nothing was going through my mind; I just remember looking down the barrel of the gun and then calling 911. Looking back on that now is like — I’m just thankful to be alive; he didn’t pull the trigger because I did not know at the time his finger was on the trigger until I looked at the video after.”

As he started calling 911, Garcia got out of his car to walk behind the Durango to get a license plate number. Then, he says the driver tried to wrestle him to the ground. “He started fighting with me; he was on top of me, trying to grab the phone out of my hand. I remember the gun because it felt cold on my back, felt like a metal piece on my back,” Garcia said. Eventually, the driver of the Durango left. Avondale Police say they are working to identify him.

Garcia said he noticed people in other vehicles were recording the situation and urged them to share those videos with Avondale Police. “People were watching and recording, so hopefully, someone can make a statement or send the videos anonymously because it would help a lot,” Garcia said. “He will do it again. If he’s able to do it to me in broad daylight, in front of traffic, he’s going to do it again.”

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