By James Peters

Kamloops road rage incident escalates into gun confrontation

Mar 14, 2017 | 9:25 AM

KAMLOOPS — Kamloops RCMP have some tips for drivers after a road rage incident escalated into a Kamloops man having two guns pointed at him yesterday.

Cpl. Jodi Shelkie says the man was minding his own business behind the wheel when he got cut off.

He decided to follow the offending vehicle until it stopped at a residence, where the agrieved driver got out to take a photo of the offending vehicle and record its license plate number.

Shelkie says that’s when the suspect driver came out of the house, allegedly pointing a pair of rifles at the man.

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The complainant left the area and called police.

Shelkie says officers arrived on scene, asked the suspect to leave the house, eventually arresting the man and seizing guns from the home.

A 25 year old man is now facing charges of pointing a firearm and possession of a firearm for a dangerous purpose.

RCMP have a number of tips for people to avoid road rage incidents that escalate into dangerous confrontations.

Shelkie says the number one priority should be your own safety.

“Keep yourself safe. That’s the most important thing if you’ve been involved in a road rage incident,” said Shelkie.

“Get the make and model and the license plate number if you can in a safe way. I’m not sure what the circumstances were where the one driver was following the other driver yesterday but just get it in the first instance and perhaps not follow them to their home.”

“In any stressful situation, stay in your vehicle and don’t respond with an angry gesture or action. Remember it’s nothing personal. Avoid confrontation and just keep your eyes on the road. If there are angry gestures made at you or somebody’s yelling, keep your eyes on the road, keep out of the situation and just remove yourself emotionally and physically from the situation.”

“The police can only take action on something where the actual rules of the road have been broken. We don’t take into account that somebody else made an angry gesture at you, or rude gesture or something like that – which is what sometimes people call to report to us. So just remove yourself emotionally from it. If there was something that they did on the road that was against the law, give us a call and we’ll speak to the driver.”

Shelkie adds road rage incidents are becoming more common in Kamloops, as they are everywhere in North America.

“It is becoming more and more prevalent where people in our society now are in more of a rush to get somewhere and they’re less forgiving. We just have to reach into our Canadian roots and be the polite people that we are, and give up the road a bit for other motorists.”