Long Beach police say they’ve arrested a road-raging man who pointed a gun at another driver and his family while they were stopped next to him at a red light.
Detectives say the victim was driving southbound on Magnolia Avenue on the afternoon of April 28 when a driver in a gray Ford Bronco began “honking repeatedly” and tailgating him.
The victim, who had his wife and infant daughter in the car, pulled over and allowed the Bronco to pass, according to detectives’ account in a search warrant.
When the victim started driving again, he and the Bronco ended up stopped at the same red light at Anaheim Street, where the victim asked the driver “what his hurry was,” detectives wrote.
That’s when the Bronco’s driver reportedly yelled back, “Don’t talk to me like that,” in Spanish and raised his right arm to show a black handgun.
The victim’s wife recorded video of the altercation on her cellphone, which showed the Bronco’s driver point the gun toward the sky and rack the slide, appearing to load a bullet into the chamber, the detectives wrote.
He then allegedly pointed the gun at them, prompting the victim to hit the gas and drive away.
Detectives wrote that they were able to track down a suspect based on a partial license plate. Police said they arrested Jose Luis Pedroza, 42, on Thursday and booked him into jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, being a felon in possession of a firearm and illegally owning ammunition. He was being held on $30,000 bail.