A road rage confrontation in Georgia led to a shooting after a suspect allegedly made good on his promise to open fire on the victim after counting to three.
Josue Colon Matos, 30, faces charges of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and reckless driving. He sits in the Gwinnett County Jail without bond.
Local ABC affiliate WSB obtained body camera footage and showed a copy of the arrest affidavit that detailed the Dec. 23 incident in Duluth, some 30 miles northeast of Atlanta. Officers with the Duluth Police Department responded to a call around 8 p.m. about a person shot in the 3800 block of Pleasant Hill Road. An officer arrived to find the victim suffering from an “obvious gunshot wound to the left foot.”
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“I can’t believe he shot me … He was tailgating me,” the victim said in the body camera video. “He kept bothering me, and I got upset.”
Paramedics took him to the hospital for treatment.
The victim later told cops that after the man started tailgating him, he pulled into a parking lot and the suspect, later identified as Matos, followed him in. The victim exited out of his car and walked up to the suspect’s car. Per the affidavit, Matos got out and both men started arguing, That when Matos allegedly pulled out a gun and told the victim he had “until the count of three” to leave him alone.
Matos counted to three and then shot the victim, according to cops. The suspect then drove away. Cops used traffic cameras to track him down and arrest him. His attorney gave a differing account than the police version of events.
“We anticipate the evidence will show the other driver was the primary aggressor and that Mr. Matos’ actions were in self-defense,” the attorney, Robert King, said.
Matos has a court hearing scheduled for Jan. 17.