Road rage among senior citizens

Beecher Davis, 82, was charged with assault for punching Charlie Bruener, 67, in the face, twice, in a moment of road rage in Alexandria, Kentucky. Bruener allegedly called Davis a son-of-a-bitch after Davis cut him off in his car. Davis followed Bruener and his wife to a Wal-Mart parking lot. From WCPO:

When they pulled into the Walmart parking lot, Bruener says Davis approached their car.

"I said get away from here you s.o.b. like that and when I did that he punched me in the jaw," said Bruener.

The 67-year-old says that's when he reached for his Derringer pistol which he has a concealed carry permit but Davis he says was unphased.

"He told me to shoot him! He pointed it right at his chest and he said shoot me! I said mister I will shoot you if you don't get away from me." said Bruener. "I said get away from me you s.o.b nut you know like that and then I get hit again in the chin! He hit me again in the chin..."

According to the police report, officers asked Davis why instead of calling police he approached Bruener's car. Davis told officers he doesn't take being called a s.o.b off of anybody.

Davis later told the officer, "If you call me a s.o.b., I'll slug you, too."

"Senior Citizen Arrested For Assault" (Thanks, Charles Pescovitz!)

Previously:

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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ill lich

I didn’t think it was funny until I got to “Derringer pistol”– wow, that dates the guy for sure.

(Yikes– apparently Derringer is still in business, making the same dual barrel .22 pistol that is almost a running gag in every cowboy movie. Website is kind of a hoot too: female president of the company posing suggestively with her guns, wearing vintage burlesque outfits! http://www.amderringer.com/message.html )
jimh

when geezers attack
jungletek

Don’t draw it if you’re not ready to use it.
Anonymous

This happens in my hometown and I learn about it from Boingboing? Certainly a step up from the loitering and “unlawful taking” of CD’s from someone’s car that usually goes on.
bubblechamber

Kentucky? I like to imagine the scene going down with Foghorn Leghorn-style accents and involving the phrase “you have offended my ‘onah suh!” Dueling ensues.
Tony Moore

The lesson to be learned here is to respect your elders. Treat all senior citizens, especially in KY, as if you were dealing with Billy Joe Shaver. They are old, and therefore have little to lose, and will fuck you up with little hesitation.

-T
Anonymous

I think it’s funny that the police actually ask “Why didn’t you just call us?” As if they would actually DO anything about someone cutting you off in traffic.
Tony Moore

true story: In my hometown of Cynthiana, KY, my grandma’s 88 yr old neighbor named Harold Slade stopped a robber who was armed with a gun, chased him down the road and beat him down with a Louisville Slugger.

-T
jtegnell

Chasing someone down, punching him while having a gun pointed at him, daring him to shoot — this is why super old people (like McCain for example) shouldn’t be qualified for higher office. They just don’t have anything to fucking lose, so why not go barreling over a cliff?
phisrow

http://gossip.elliottback.com/thorazine-for-senile-agitation/
dhalgren

I love older people. Cranky and cantankerous this reminds me of my dad. Wouldn’t take shit from anyone. Great story.
chgoliz

I’m flabberghasted that several of the assailant’s family members have written in to champion his behavior.

I can understand supporting a wayward family member, of course, but they’re actually going out of their way in a public forum to justify his actions. Instead of feeling ashamed, or concerned that something might be psychologically wrong with him, they’re proud and defiant.

What’s with that?
JamesMason

Davis was “unphased”

WTF does that mean? Did he forget his phaser in the holodeck?

Pet peeve revealed.

FAZED
Jerril

Who the hell draws a gun and then *lets* somebody punch them in the face?

Someone who was really hoping the gun would frighten the attacker off, and realized that homocide probably wasn’t worth preventing a punch to the face?

I suspect there are more than a few people out there who carry a gun and don’t actually have the murderous reflexes to kill someone else with it.
flatfive

Who the hell punches a guy with a gun pointed at their chest? Who the hell draws a gun and then *lets* somebody punch them in the face? How did this altercation end, anyway?

Even aside from the road rage, this whole situation is so mind-boggling.
Anonymous

The charges were dropped the following day:

http://www.kypost.com/mostpopular/story/Assault-Charge-Dropped-Against-Elderly-Man/8HtclzerOkuTsxeuRyC9Kw.cspx
Gruggers

Most of these old guys are bullies who are used to getting their own way by bullying. This is what happens when two bullies get in each other’s way. Someone needs to slap them down. Get a taste of reality.
gornzilla

The comments have a couple from family members of the old guy who hates being called an SOB. One says the other guy instigated it, in part by pulling out the gun! The next time someone pulls a gun on me, I’ll try not to sock him in the jaw.
zandar

slapped down by a third-party bully, perhaps.
TJ S

I just hope that when I’m 82, I have the physical health to throw a good punch, and the mental health to know when it’s a bad idea (ie: when there’s a GUN pointed at my chest).
Anonymous

Part of aging is losing the ability to censor yourself. Many people are horrified to hear their parents say racist or sexist things when they never did. It can be very sad.

I had a road rage experience with an elderly man when I first moved to the Twin Cities. I was on a group ride with a bunch of professionals: doctors, lawyers, etc. We were riding two by two on the right side of the white line on the shoulder when this older guy decided we shouldn’t be riding on the road so he swerved his big boat into us to teach us a lesson. I rode on his hood for about a mile before he stopped.

He was ready to fight, despite being on oxygen. But he got flustered when he couldn’t get his walker out of the back seat so he got back in his car and drove off to a phone booth to call the police. He said he was being harassed by a bunch of kids on bikes.
billstewart

That’s “unfazed”, not “unphased”. The latter would apply if the guy had pulled a Star Trek phaser on him but not fired, or perhaps if he’d become desynchronized with fear…
Robert

True story: At my local super-wally-world, we were just getting out of the car when we saw an altercation between a woman and some cops. The woman was screeching, “I am not a crack-whore! I am not a crack-whore!”
RumorsofmyDemise

Why does this always happen in the Walmart parking lot?
underdesign

Anyone that upset about a slur is obviously self-defined by the slur, and angrily fighting his own self-image.

Plus, his mom was a real bitch.
CANTFIGHTTHEDITE

Up next, the story of the cantankerous old geezer…