Frightening video captured the moment a Tesla driver stopped to violently attack a car on the 2 Freeway during a road rage incident in Northeast Los Angeles.
In the video, the Tesla driver is seen slamming on his brakes, hopping out of his SUV, running toward the victim’s car and striking it multiple times with a large pipe.
This incident marks the latest in a series of similar road rage attacks involving the same violent driver.
The most recent attack happened Wednesday morning along the southbound lanes of the 2 Freeway just after 8 a.m. near the York Boulevard exit.
After the suspect is seen violently attacking the victim’s truck, he hops back into his car and drives away.
“Initially you think, ‘Should I pin him to the wall with my car?’ ‘Should I run him down?’ ‘What should I do?’ recalled the victim, who wished to remain anonymous. “And I tried to stay focused and think, ‘I don’t want to go from victim to criminal in an instant.’”
The victim says he first started recording after watching the Tesla driving erratically and targeting a vehicle on the freeway.
Video captures the Tesla stopping next to a white sedan on an exit shoulder. The suspect is seen hopping out of his car and sprinting toward the sedan, trying to strike it before the sedan quickly drives off.
“He gets back to his car and he notices that I’m taping him, so he follows me,” the victim explains. “At some point, he cuts me off, slams the brakes and starts beating on my car.”
Similar videos have been circulating on social media which appear to show the same Tesla driver rushing toward another vehicle, armed with a pipe in hand.
“Maybe it’s a pattern, maybe he was just having a bad day, I don’t know,” said the victim. “Who can say what was going on in his head?”
The California Highway Patrol is investigating the attacks, although tracking down the suspect may prove tricky as the driver had removed his license plates.
The victim is hoping other witnesses may have videos they could provide to the CHP so the suspect can be caught soon.
“I think it should be important for all of us, for this guy to get off the streets,” said the victim. “We can’t have people going around banging on people’s cars. That’s not the society I want to live in.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact California Highway Patrol at 1-800-835-5247.