Deadly violence on US Kentucky highway creates fear, mayhem, frustration and leaves five motorists injured

Kentucky: Five drivers in Kentucky are victims of a sniper attack. A woman in Colorado, too, is run over and killed by a teenager who hurled a stone into her car. A family’s vacation in the region that is occupied by the Navajo Nation, which lies adjacent to New Mexico, goes wrong when an unidentified man rides after the car shooting.

One of the most distinctively American draws is the allure of the open road. The U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics and state crime reports show that there are 48,500 miles of interstate highways where American drivers drive the most. However, a drive can easily turn dangerous, and violent outbursts on the highway leave behind unforgettable images of killed drivers and destruction. They also erode the sense of safety on these roads.

According to a media report analysis of national news reports and statistics, attacks on freeway drivers are not only increasing in certain densely populated places but are also making people more afraid to go on the highway on a daily basis. Heavy-armed riflemen on the sides of roads, drivers attempting to murder someone who cut them off in traffic, and juvenile pranksters hurling melon-sized pebbles at passing automobiles are a few of the fatal instances that occur in the United States.

According to federal statistics, the number of shootings on roads has increased by more than 50% in many states over the last five years, such as Texas and Washington. Additionally, authorities in a few towns have voiced their anger at their efforts to stop the shootings, which are hard to identify since the gunmen sometimes go unnoticed and escape long before the police do.

U.S. Attorney for New Mexico Alexander M.M. Uballez said, “Road rage incidents that result in death feel particularly symptomatic of a society that has lost connection with itself and each other because of the way in which a moment of frustration can turn so tragic so quick.” “People are often so overcome by a fit of rage that they fail to recognize the person in the other car as another person or as someone in their community.”

The most recent shooting occurred in Kentucky’s Laurel County. On Wednesday, the authorities said that they thought they had located Joseph A. Couch’s corpse, the alleged gunman. When local sheriff’s office officers arrived on the scene on September 7 along Interstate 75, they discovered automobiles with windows blown out and full of gunshot holes.

However, there were other mass highway shootings that week in addition to the Kentucky attack, which shocked and outraged people all around the country for its blatant disregard for the law. Five days before, on Labor Day evening in Washington state, a shooter opened fire on a section of the I-5 freeway outside Seattle, injuring six people in “spasms of violence.”.

We don’t know why the gunman followed and opened fire on innocent cars from his white Volvo. However, the Washington State Patrol reports that he struck up to ten automobiles, leaving two of them badly injured from gunshot wounds to the neck and chest, and that he caused a wave of dread on the highway.

This isn’t appropriate. Chief of the Washington State Patrol John R. Batiste said, “We will uphold the right of anyone to travel in our state securely.

The prevalence of road rage, which is just one aspect of the issue of highway violence, has increased dramatically. Everytown Research & Policy examined road rage cases using the database of the Gun Violence Archive and discovered that since 2018, the incidence of gun-related road rage injuries and fatalities has risen annually. According to the analysis, there were at least 70 road rage gunshot fatalities in the US that year; by 2022, that figure had doubled to 141.

“They just put a ton of holes in my car.”

Following this month’s sniper attack in Kentucky, panicked drivers have been making 911 calls, and it is evident that they are afraid and confused.

One bewildered caller says, “I just got shot at, officer,” in a tape that the media reports Network has listened to. “They have completely filled my car with holes.”

Telling the dispatcher that the shooter is “shooting everybody coming by” and that a lady struck in the vehicle behind him is “gushing blood,” the driver explains the situation.

In another caller’s heartbroken confusion, “Why did someone shoot us?” can be heard on a 911 call audio that the media reports Network’s Louisville Courier-Journal acquired. He claims that his wife was struck in the face and that he can hear her wailing in agony.

Highway violence is particularly frightening because of how unpredictable and violent the assaults can be, according to experts.

Dr. Robert Brady, who oversees Dartmouth Health’s Anxiety Disorder Service, said that “these kinds of events, whether they happen directly to a given driver or are simply present in the news media, can shatter someone’s sense of safety.” “Many of the people in the surrounding area even after the threat is eliminated might still have a sense of vigilance when they’re on the road, and that vigilance makes total sense; they’re more alarmed, more on alert as they’re driving.”

55% more shootings occur in Washington state

Director of Communications Chris Loftis released statistics from the State Patrol showing that from 2019 to 2023, there were over 55% more gunshots recorded on Washington’s interstates—from 602 to 937. The number of gun-wielding incidents reported on roads rose by more than 35%.

According to Loftis, gang-related violence accounts for around 25% of highway violence, but other criminal activities like robberies and personal disputes also figure heavily. Acts of road rage also play a part in this violence.

Loftis linked the rise in shootings to both an increase in the population’s access to firearms and the number of vehicles on the road. “Higher car counts increase the likelihood of traffic accidents,” he said. “There is a greater chance that that conflict will turn deadly with more guns.”

In 2024, there will likely be more gunshots than there were in the previous year. With 1,058 recorded shootings, 2022 saw the highest number.

Loftis regretted that the patrol could not stop shootings.

He said, “Freeway shooters were not born on the interstates.” They did not grow up near our roads. They were not raised in sidewalk culture or made to feel comfortable in public spaces. Even nevertheless, those surfaces serve as the setting for many of those novels’ denouements or most violent scenes.

Highway shooting rampage

Most shootings in Washington occur in King County, along Interstate 5, which connects Tacoma and Seattle. A motorist with unclear intentions fired at around a dozen individuals, including a family with two little children, only days before to the Kentucky shooting.

Court filings state that on September 2, Eric Jerome Lee Sentell Perkins was charged with five counts of first-degree assault for shooting at other drivers at random.According to Loftis, the gunshots took place over a 25-mile stretch of highway across two counties in a couple of hours. The suspect fired, striking nine or ten automobiles and injuring six persons.One of the individuals listed in the charging paperwork was contacted by a media report, but he requested to remain anonymous due to his trauma from the shooting and worries about the safety of his family.

After supper, the guy and his two little children were driving home when bullets broke into the vehicle.The father said that they believed the first bullet, which struck the back of the family’s white Lincoln Aviator, to be a rock and that it is usual for homeless persons in the neighborhood to hurl stones at moving vehicles. Then the second bullet struck, piercing his wife’s eye with glass from the passenger side window.”It was absolutely awful,” the guy said.

“Thank God, everything is okay, but we still have emotional damage to deal with.”The parents said that it was a ghost hurling pebbles at their 4-year-old kid. Even though it’s difficult to avoid, his wife is terrified to drive on the highway due to the attack’s utter unpredictability.The guy said, “This isn’t like avoiding a bad neighborhood.” “I can’t stay away from Washington State’s main freeway.”

This state-wide shooting spree is the second in less than a year. Authorities in December of last year said that the state police had detained a second driver who was perhaps responsible for six gunshots in a few hours.

Traveler wrath turns into highway terror

The majority of road rage incidents occur often enough that national news coverage of random acts of violence, such as the killings in Kentucky and Washington, often overshadows them. However, the killing of a 6-year-old kid on his way to kindergarten after the boy’s mother made a crude gesture at the guy for cutting him off is among the most dramatic examples of highway violence.

Outrage followed Marcus Eriz’s death of Aiden Leos in Southern California. Hundreds of leads were received to locate Eriz, and the local community pooled around half a million dollars as a reward for information leading to an arrest.

Leos was killed in the midst of a rash of violent incidents after the outbreak that were sparked by road rage. According to Eriz, he shot the Glock 17 because “people have been acting crazy around the freeway,” the Los Angeles Times said.

According to a media report, violent occurrences resulting from road rage occur almost every week.

According to the IndyStar, Dion Kimbrough was given a 60-year jail term last week for the murder of Eli Hickerson. Witnesses said that in 2022, when Hickerson, 30, raised his hands in protest over Kimbrough’s careless driving, Kimbrough shot and killed him on an Indiana highway.

Road rage has been a contributing factor in the spike of shootings on Indiana roadways for years, according to Indiana State Police Sergeant John Perrine. In 2024, there have already been 54 shootings and 300 complaints of firearms being displayed on Indianapolis area interstates; last year, there were 56 shootings and 230 reports of guns being brandished.

The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported that an argument that started last week in the drive-thru queue at a Florida McDonald’s became physical and resulted in one motorist shooting the other, who was carrying a knife, dead on the road.

The Staunton News Leader reports that Ma’ Aquil N. Littlejohn, 43, was found guilty last week in Virginia of unlawful wounding and illegal discharge of a handgun causing in harm after he pulled a pistol on another car in November.

Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicates that an increasing percentage of fatal collisions are caused by road rage. The number of fatalities from collisions linked to aggressive and road-rage driving increased by 47% to 742 between 2019 and 2022.

Avalanche of rocks

There are other weapons than firearms that people are utilizing against drivers. When a Colorado teenager threw a melon-sized rock into oncoming cars, it became a lethal weapon.

For his role in a rock-throwing binge that resulted in the death of a 20-year-old woman in a suburban Denver neighborhood, Nicholas “Mitch” Karol-Chik entered a guilty plea in May to many counts, including second-degree murder.

The youngsters hurled rocks at seven cars while they were all eighteen at the time. According to authorities, that evening three other cars were hurt by rocks, and 20-year-old Alexa Bartell perished when a rock broke through her windshield.

In addition, four teens from Michigan entered guilty pleas to many crimes related to the man’s death in 2017 caused by several rocks thrown from an overpass into a highway outside of Flint, as reported by the Detroit Free Press.

Data on highway shootings

According to the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer, roadways, along with alleyways, streets, and sidewalks, are the second most probable locations for violent crimes to occur, after homes.

According to the most recent FBI statistics available, the number of violent crimes recorded on highways, streets, sidewalks, and in alleyways almost quadrupled from 105,000 crimes in 2019 and 135,000 crimes in 2020 to 203,000 crimes in 2022.

In certain states, the tendency was more severe. Between 2019 and 2022, there was an over 83% increase in violent crimes in Indiana that the FBI was notified of on public roads. On Texas roads, gunshot incidents increased by more than 51%.

A terrified family

As to Rachel A. Powers, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati, it only takes a single gunshot to completely collapse a highway and have a permanent psychological effect on the individuals who use it.The notion “that it can happen in your backyard can shake your faith,” the speaker stated.”

Rydell Happy and his companions, according to federal prosecutors, incited that horror on a roadway that goes through the Navajo Nation in April.

Happy allegedly started threatening the family when they pulled over to stretch their legs, according to a criminal complaint that was submitted to the District of New Mexico.

The family’s grandfather drove, got their adult kid and grandchildren back in the car, and headed down the road. The Happy crew followed, driving so fast that they crashed into the family’s vehicle. From the SUV, the driver’s adult kid saw someone shooting a pistol at them. Court documents state that investigators discovered five gunshot holes in the vehicle.

Happy was located on the highway by the police after the family was able to get off the road and notify them. Happy, 30, is accused of being involved in a separate murder that was carried out on the same day, according to federal authorities. The victim was allegedly assaulted with a baseball bat and thrown from a cliff.

For the tale, we were unable to get in touch with the family, who is not mentioned in the case. Happy’s lawyer said he would not comment.