SEATTLE — A 25-year-old man was arrested Saturday evening after police say he intentionally rammed his SUV into a van carrying a family of four, including two young children, causing the vehicle to catch fire in what investigators are calling a road rage incident.
The incident unfolded around 5:30 p.m. near Meridian Avenue North and North 40th Street in the Wallingford neighborhood. When officers arrived, they found a van with significant front-end damage and burn marks. Seattle firefighters had just extinguished flames that had engulfed the vehicle moments earlier.
According to the Seattle Police Department, the incident began when both vehicles reached an impasse on the narrow stretch of Meridian Avenue North. As the driver of the van attempted to find a spot to move over, the suspect became “visibly angry, yelling through his windshield, and started throwing his hands up,” police said in their news release.
The suspect flipped off the family, then deliberately rammed his SUV into the front of their van, according to investigators. The impact sent the van backward. Within moments, the vehicle erupted in flames with the family still inside. The two young girls were strapped into booster seats in the back. All four occupants — including two girls, ages 7 and 10 — escaped without injuries.
The mother told the suspect to stay at the scene and immediately called 911. The suspect did not engage with the family further as they waited for help to arrive.
“She felt it was done on purpose out of anger,” an officer wrote in the police report, describing the mother’s account of the crash. She told police she feared for the safety of her children when the man’s SUV struck their van.
Officers arrived to find the suspect still at the scene and arrested him without incident. His SUV sustained only minimal damage compared to the family’s van, which was heavily damaged and charred from the fire.
Police arrested the man on four counts of felony assault for using his vehicle as a deadly weapon, along with charges related to property destruction. He was booked into the King County Jail Saturday evening.
Both vehicles were towed from the scene. Detectives from the Seattle Police Department’s Homicide and Assault Unit have been assigned to investigate the case.
트위터 공유: 도로 분노로 가족 차량 방화 가해자 체포