Perhaps one of the most shocking and tragic stories of cyclist road rage is the October 8, 1997 involving driver Joy Estrella Mariano Enriquez and cyclist Alejandro Jose Grant. As the Post wrote during the trial
Seconds after a motorist accidentally bumped him off his bicycle at a busy Adelphi intersection last fall, Alejandro Jose Grant calmly got up, pulled a small pistol from a backpack, walked over to the waiting driver and shot her in the head.
Grant calmly walked back to his bicycle, which was still lying in the road, and began to pedal away, Jenkins said. She and Fowler followed Grant into a nearby parking lot, where they saw him put his bike into a dumpster.
Fowler said he drove back toward Riggs Road after Grant saw the couple following him and brandished his gun. Fowler and Jenkins notified county police officers on the scene, who chased Grant across University Boulevard and behind a bowling alley before arresting him.
It would come out later that Grant had a long history of violence and drug use. He had been charged with assault the prior April and
At the time of his arrest, Grant also had been convicted in 1991 of assaulting a Prince George's police officer; possession and sale of marijuana and resisting arrest in New York; and malicious destruction of property last year for which he served 10 days in the Montgomery County jail. It also was reported that Grant had assault charges still pending against him in Washington.
And he spent half a month in jail in 1993 for battery. He was convicted about a year later (despite the accidental destruction of the murder weapon by County police).
Clayton Aarons, Grant's public defender, did not dispute that Grant shot Enriquez. But in opening arguments, he asked jurors to reserve judgment on the premeditated murder charge before hearing "all the facts."
Aarons said Grant was struck by another car earlier in the day, reacted quickly and did not deserve to be convicted of first-degree murder.
He was sentenced to life in prison without parole, after asking for the death penalty. Sadly, when he didn't get the death penalty, he took his own life.
The Silver Spring man was not on a suicide watch when he wrapped a piece of bedsheet around his neck and hanged himself from the bunk bed frame. He was pronounced dead at the scene, jail officials said.
"There was nothing in his background, nothing that would lead you to believe he would hurt himself," Assistant Public Defender Clayton Aarons said yesterday.
Indeed most shocking and tragic bicycle road rage, ever. Grant took his own life maybe because of guilt? But anyway, justice has prevailed that is what is important.
Posted by: Jared @ Cannabismo | July 20, 2017 at 07:46 AM