Bill Torpy on road rage: The Dirt Devil made me do it

It’s the stock car mentality, I told him. Folks just hate an extra car slipping in ahead of them. It adds .027 seconds to their commute. And, besides, someone trying to get in your lane ahead of you is a terrible sign of disrespect.

An incident like that led to a shootout in Lilburn last week, although it was the lane-changer who took numbskull status here.

It started at Rockbridge Road when a driver wouldn’t let John Armitage into his lane. Armitage then allegedly pulled alongside and brandished his gun and started doing hand gestures.

For 20 minutes Armitage allegedly followed the other driver, then eventually said, “I’m going to shoot you in the face,” according to the guy who wouldn’t let him in.

Soon, Armitage allegedly fired his weapon and the other fellow, who also happened to be packing, started firing his. Armitage was later arrested and charged with aggravated assault.

You might think metro Atlantans would be happier now that the burned-down I-85 bridge is fixed and gridlock has eased a bit. You would be wrong.

Without looking too hard, I found half a dozen reports of road rage incidents in metro Atlanta since the March 30th highway fire that caused the bridge collapse.

But it’s not just road rage cases from the past couple of months. I found a bunch of incidents around Christmastime, because the pressure of filling stockings just makes some people cuckoo.

Let’s go to the parking lot of North Point Mall in Alpharetta. A lady in a Mercedes and a guy in a Camaro sat face to face in a parking lot aisle in a who’s-gonna-back-up-first standoff.

Of course, neither would!

So they did what any disrespected metro Atlanta driver would do — they cursed, swore and threw things at each other. Soon they were locked in a 100 mph chase on North Point Parkway (each one told cops the other was the pursuer) until the woman crashed into a median.

Luckily, nobody was hurt and police hauled both Kayla Mathis, 25, the owner of the wrecked Mercedes, and Jade Pearson, 37, the Camaro driver, off to jail.

More recently, on April 17, Shawn McLaughlin, a hip 19-year-old who sports a knit cap, was driving on North Point Parkway when he merged into a lane and angered a white-haired fellow who gave chase.

At a light, the older guy exited his truck and tried to open McLaughlin’s door. The younger man obliged him, got out and took the old fellow to the ground, where a passerby started filming the incident and screaming to let the old guy go. McLaughlin was left explaining the incident to police and Channel 2 Action News.

The older guy, still unknown to authorities, slinked off to nurse his wounds and his pride.

Three days later, in Chamblee, Keandre Davis, 20, was being driven to work by his mom, while Kamyrah Parks, a 24-year-old actress, was heading somewhere else.

Something made Davis get out of his mom's Range Rover to confront Parks. He told police he wanted to tell her to stop driving erratically. She, naturally, spun a different yarn, saying the Rover folks were the aggressive drivers and she feared for her safety.

Fortunately, the most lethal item Ms. Parks had within reach was a red Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner and she allegedly proceeded to whack away at the Davis family Rover.

A video by a passerby (isn’t there always one?) shows Parks and her Dirt Devil (after the Range Rover bash-up) facing down Davis near the intersection of Chamblee Tucker and Peachtree roads. Parks’ hands are cocked, and Davis blocks a swinging Dirt Devil with his left, then tears into the woman, knocking her down.

The Dirt Devil ninja was later charged with battery and criminal damage to property and hauled off to jail. Davis was ticketed for disorderly conduct.

“It was two individuals at the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Chamblee police Capt. Ernesto Ford.

And, obviously, in the wrong mood.

Even if Davis was the wronged party, getting out of his car to confront the woman was stupid, said Capt. Ford, adding, “He should have just gone on to work.”

But too many people just won’t let it go, said Omega Angell, an anger management therapist.

Angell said a healthy proportion of his business comes from court-ordered anger management sessions that derived from road rage cases.

“Almost always people don’t want to admit they are wrong. They point fingers all around,” he said.

His clientele is split between men and women, with females averaging about 30 and men in their 40s, many of them professionals.

“It’s not the traffic, it’s other issues — work, relationships, life, the long hours they work,” he said. “They take it on the road with them when they’re going home.”

Gerald Tisdale was a 52-year-old IT guy for "The Fish" Christian radio station and was headed home on March 30 when something happened on Stone Mountain Freeway.

Witnesses saw a speeding Jeep Cherokee trying to elude a black four-door Nissan Altima. The Nissan caught up with the Jeep, an arm extended from the rear of the Altima and the Jeep suddenly veered off the road, crashing into trees and a wall.

Tisdale, the Jeep’s driver, was dead of a gunshot to the head. DeKalb County police worry the case is getting cold.

Angela Tisdale said her brother was divorced and moved to Georgia to be near his two children.

“He was on his way home to see his kids,” she said. “He loved being a dad. He was there for homework, for riding roller coasters with them and making puzzles.”

“I can’t imagine he’d do anything to provoke this,” his sister said. “People are in their own little bubble. You think you’ve been disrespected. Then something like this happens.”