Berkeley police are asking for the community’s help to find a Mercedes driver who punched a passenger in another vehicle, then drove into a second man who tried to stop him from leaving the scene of a road rage incident last week.
Police said the incident took place Thursday, Oct. 19, shortly before 5 p.m. Police were called to the 2600 block of Ashby Avenue to handle the investigation, BPD said in a prepared statement.
“The victim told police that he and his passenger were driving eastbound on Ashby when his passenger yelled at the driver of a white Mercedes who was driving erratically. When the victim’s car stopped in traffic on the 2600 block, the driver of the Mercedes stopped next to them, exited his car and approached the passenger side. The suspect then began punching the passenger through the open window,” according to the police statement.
The people in both cars then got out, “and a heated argument ensued,” police said. When the Mercedes driver tried to leave, “the victim attempted to stop him from leaving by standing in front of his car. The suspect pulled his car forward knocking the victim to the ground causing minor, non-life threatening injuries.” The man in the Mercedes then fled eastbound on Ashby, police said.
Authorities said the incident was caught on video by occupants in a car that had stopped behind the Mercedes in traffic.
Police said the Mercedes driver appears to be a white man, 45-50 years old, with brown hair, brown eyes and a heavy build, and a “slightly graying goatee,” wearing a plaid shirt and jeans. His vehicle was a new model white Mercedes CLS 63 with black and white dealer plates.
Police are looking for the man on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and battery. Police ask anyone who recognizes the man to call the Berkeley Police Homicide Detail at 510-981-5741.
