Tesla driver brake checking, gave pickup driver no way out before shots fired, activists say
James Young's supporters says Chris Harclerode provoked a road rage shooting by putting the pickup driver in danger on the road.
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Supporters of a man already facing criminal charges in a road rage incident are demanding that the other driver also face charges. They assert that both men bear some responsibility for what happened a week ago.
As ABC13 first reported last week, James Young was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after he was captured on video lifting a gun and firing shots at a Tesla being driven by Chris Harclerode.
The incident happened as both men were driving westbound on the Westpark Toll Road on Sept. 25.
In the video captured by Harclerode's Tesla, you can see Young's truck swerve several times behind it, then pull in front at the Eldridge Parkway exit. As the Tesla swings by, video shows Young getting out of the car and firing shots. Nobody was hit.
On Monday, Young, his wife, and community activists Quanell X and Candace Mathews showed a different video. This video was taken by Young's wife, LaShawna Goulbourne, who was sitting in the passenger seat. Their 5-year-old child was in the back seat. In this latest video, you can clearly see the Tesla brake check in front of Young's truck repeatedly.
"The Tesla abruptly got in front of me, brake checked me, sped up on the highway," Young said, who had just picked up his wife from work at that time. "I'm going 70, 75 (mph). The Tesla brake checked me again. I have no way out to the left or the right as I try to get away from the situation."
"He's in a very fast vehicle," Goulbourne said. "He could have hit the gas and went and parked and called the police. He chose to continue to provoke us."
The community activists did not condone Young's actions, but said that Harclerode should also face some sort of criminal charge.
"There should not have been one arrest. There should have been two," Mathews said. "You want to hold this man accountable for what he did, let's look at the bigger picture."
The Harris County Precinct 5 Constable's Office turned over both videos last week to the Harris County District Attorney's Office.
"It is never acceptable to settle a traffic dispute with a gun," Dane Schiller, spokesman for the district attorney's office, said Monday afternoon. "Based on the evidence presented to prosecutors, the defendant was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly riddling the victim's car with bullets. Prosecutors determined there was insufficient evidence for additional criminal charges against anyone else in this matter."
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