A Rhode Island driver displayed what looked like a regular gun to a tow truck driver during a road rage incident on Interstate 95 in Norwalk and Darien on Monday afternoon, state police said.
When troopers stopped the driver at Exit 10 in Darien, he became uncooperative, and police handcuffed him, police said. A search of the man’s car turned up a BB gun which state police described as a “black facsimile firearm.”
The truck driver told state police that after the man apparently became angry with him, he drove his car in front of the truck and slowed down to 5 mph on the highway. When the truck driver moved into another lane, the other driver, while wearing a mask, pulled up beside the truck cab and pointed what looked like a gun at him. He called state police.
State police gave the account in this article, including accusations not proven in court:
Arrest photo from Troop G Connecticut S.P.
Dae Acosta, 24, of Central Falls, Rhode Island, charged with threatening with what looked like a firearm and related crimes during and after an alleged road rage incident.
The truck driver called state police at about 2:19 p.m. to report the road rage incident. He said he was in the southbound lanes near Exit 13 in Darien. He said he had been threatened by a man displaying a gun while driving a black sedan with a Rhode Island license plate and front-end damage.
A trooper saw a sedan matching the description and stopped the vehicle at Exit 10 in Darien. He told the driver, later identified as Dae Jesus Acosta, 24, of Central Falls, Rhode Island, to get out of the car. A second trooper arrived at the scene.
Police decided to pat down Acosta, based on what was alleged in the truck driver’s 911 call. Before troopers could do that, Acosta became uncooperative and combative. He resisted trooper’s efforts to put him in a police cruiser.
When he was in the cruiser, Acosta was told State Police at the Troop G barracks had received 911 calls alleging he was displaying a firearm. Asked if there was a firearm in his car, Acosta said there wasn’t. Police searched the car.
They found the BB gun and treated it as evidence in their investigation.
Troopers met with the truck driver, who described the highway incident. He said the black four-door sedan had tried to enter the southbound lanes at the Exit 15 entrance ramp, but it was unable to immediately merge into I-95 because the tow truck was already occupying the lane.
The black car eventually maneuvered in front of the tow truck and slowed down to about 5 mph, apparently to get the truck to stop. The truck driver moved into the center lane.
The black car moved into the left lane and drove next to the tow truck. That’s where the car driver, while wearing a mask, pointed what looked like a regular gun at the truck driver and demanded he pull over.
The truck driver said he lost site of the black car while on the 911 call. He identified the black sedan driven by Acosta as the same car involved in the incident.
Acosta was arrested on charges of illegal possession of a weapon in a motor vehicle, interfering with an officer or resisting arrest, second-degree breach of peace and first-degree threatening by displaying a firearm.
He was taken to Troop G in Bridgeport and initially held on a $30,000 cash/surety bond. Accosta was scheduled to appear today, Tuesday, April 30, in state Superior Court in Stamford.
SIDEBAR:
Does the Law Against Possession of a Weapon in a Motor Vehicle Apply to BB Guns?
Apparently it does, unless they’re unloaded and stored in certain spots in the vehicle.
According to the Justia US Law website, which publishes the texts of state statutes (specifically “2023 Connecticut General Statutes Title 29 – Public Safety and State Police Chapter 529 – Division of State Police Section 29-38“): All weapons, with certain listed exceptions, are illegal in cars. “The word ‘weapon,’ as used in this section, means any BB. gun […]” or the other weapons listed in the rest of that sentence.
In the next paragraph (b), the law notes an exception involving BB guns: “The provisions of this section shall not apply to: […] (4) any person having a BB. gun in a vehicle provided such weapon is unloaded and stored in the trunk of such vehicle or in a locked container other than the glove compartment or console; […]”