Tennessee Road Rage Shooting: Was It Racially Motivated?
Following a Tennessee road rage incident a man has been charged with attempted murder after shooting a motorcyclist and hitting another with his SUV.
The suspect, Rodney Lee Scott, is currently jailed on bond of $1 million according to the Knoxville County Sheriff’s office. The road rage incident on Monday occurred in the same street in which Scott was arrested for assault in 2002.
Apparently, as Scott drove in the street he almost collided with two bikers who began gesticulating at him. Scott allegedly returned the waves with obscene gestures before stopping the SUV he was driving and backing into one of them, causing them to fall.
But the situation just got worse from there as a witness who had helped to assist to the bikers told police. The two bikers and the witness followed Scott home and called the police to report the incident.
As the three men waited in the street for the police to arrive Scott allegedly began shouting racial abuse at one of the bikers who was black. He then went into his garage and came out with a gun in each hand and started shooting the bikers.
Allegedly, the biker Tyler Lakin, was hit three times in the back with bullets as Scott continued shooting him while he laid on the street. He was taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center where he was declared to be in a “stable condition.”
As well as the attempted murder charge Scott was also charged with fleeing the scene of an accident and there may be more charges leveled against him if his blood work comes back positive for alcohol.
It remains to be seen if there was more to the Tennessee road rage incident than meets the eye as police and local authorities try to piece together the exact course of events which led to the shooting.
