Viral cellphone video shows a road rage dispute between two men in Indianapolis taking a deadly turn.
Police found 29-year-old Gavin Dasaur suffering from gunshot wounds in the middle of a street near an interstate on the city’s southeast side Tuesday night.
Investigators learned Dasaur was shot during an altercation with another driver. Witnesses told police the shooting happened during a confrontation between Dasaur and the driver of a white Chevy pickup truck.
Video recorded by one witness showed Dasaur getting out of his black Honda and approaching the driver’s side of the white Chevy with a gun in his right hand. He’s seen punching the door and yelling at the driver.
“You wanna play with me?!” Dasaur shouted.
That’s when the Chevy driver sticks his handgun out of the driver’s side window and shoots Dasaur three times.
The shooter never left his car. Dasaur was pronounced dead at the scene when first responders arrived.
The video showing the altercation is below. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.
Police detained the Chevy driver but later released him. Investigators indicated he may have been acting in self-defense.
The Marion County medical examiner’s office ruled Dasaur’s death a homicide. No arrests have been made.
Dasaur’s death comes more than two weeks after he was married.
“He was a hardworking man that always went out of his way to help anyone and wanted to give the world to me and his family,” Dasaur’s wife, Cinthya ZaMora, told WTHR. “He did not deserve to die this way. It’s such a tragedy that my husband was murdered in cold blood.”
Indiana State Police Sgt. John Perrine said 55 interstate shootings happened in Indianapolis last year, the majority of which are believed to be connected to road rage disputes.
Most of them don’t end in injury or death, but Perrine stated that people’s inability to effectively respond to stressful or triggering situations leads to volatile confrontations.
“We are allowing others to control our emotions. We have to be in control of our emotions at all times, whether it’s someone honking the horn at you or going slower than we want them to,” Officer Tommy Thompson told WISH.
Police say the best way to avoid road rage confrontations is to refrain from using aggressive gestures and flee a scene if one’s safety is threatened.
“The most successful cases that we have been able to investigate and close are because somebody saw something and reported that to us,” Perrine said. “If you see someone engage in road rage, but you don’t see gunfire or a gun, call 911 and report that information.”
