After Plaza Midwood road rage shooting, business leader calls on city to add bike lanes
A road rage incident that ended with someone firing a gun at another driver in Plaza Midwood on Sunday afternoon near Central Avenue and Pecan Avenue was captured in a now-deleted Instagram video.
There isn’t a single solution to preventing similar incidents, but Jason Michel, the executive director of the Plaza Midwood Merchants Association, has ideas about where to start: reducing Central Avenue to two lanes.
“It is always disheartening when behavioral violence emerges anywhere in the world and, of course, even more so when it emerges close to home,” Michael said in a statement to the Observer on Wednesday. “Regarding this incident, Plaza Midwood Merchants are strong advocates for pedestrian first communities and urban design. Then cyclists, then Public Transit, and last and definitely least, cars.”
The association has been advocating for the lane reduction for over a decade, he said. Not only could it help expand sidewalks and bike lanes, but it would increase pedestrian and cyclist safety.
It would also help “calm traffic on Central in general, encouraging commuters trying to get elsewhere to use Independence Blvd.”
Road rage sparks gunfire
In the video, the driver gets out of his SUV and strikes the back of a black sedan parked in front of him with some kind of rod or stick. The sedan drives away, out of view of the camera.
The driver of the SUV gets back into his car just before a bullet strikes the windshield. The driver’s side mirror is hanging off the door.
The driver and shooter did not know each other, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police report said.
Observer news partner WSOC interviewed the driver of the SUV who was shot at, but was not identified by name in the story.
The driver, WSOC reported, was going to lunch with his 73-year-old father who had just undergone surgery. He honked at the driver of the sedan who didn’t move when the light turned green.
Things devolved from there, as the driver of the sedan “whipped around, swerved around my car, cut me off, and stopped, tried to get us in multiple accidents,” the SUV driver said.
The SUV driver said he was also wrong for engaging with the sedan driver, who then get out of his car and poured water from a water bottle on him through his window. He then smashed the mirror on his dad’s car and wouldn’t let them go.
The SUV driver then got out of his vehicle, wielding a stick, and hit the sedan’s rear windshield.
“He ran the red light, pulled the gun and took a shot at us,” the SUV driver told WSOC.
The driver said a bullet fragment hit his father near his eye, close to the spot where he had surgery earlier that day.
CMPD said Wednesday that no arrests have been made.
Plaza Midwood merchant says law and order is not enough
But aside from making physical changes to the neighborhood, Michel said there needs to be “systemic changes around ecological sustainability, economic inequality, and reparative justice.”
“Our culture is suffering from centuries of toxic exploitation of the environment and of the working class and poor leaving many people feeling hopeless, stressed out, and angry,” he said.
Although not “fix alls,” Michel said, things like universal basic income, housing, health care, and education policies could help curb chronic disease, mental health, and behavioral violence epidemics.
“We carry this spirit into every meeting and event we show up for with hopes that we can help other leaders and organizations build a vibrant, diverse, sustainable, and safe Charlotte and beyond,” Michel said.
“We can’t begin to address these incidents without considering the root causes. It’s not either/or. Gun laws, more cops, and heavier penalties are always the go to solutions but they are not enough to address the causes.”
Bernie Petit, president of the Plaza Midwood Neighborhood Association, said in a statement to the Observer that he was thankful no one was injured in the incident.
“While I realize this can happen anywhere, it’s still not something we ever want to see in our community or in our city,” Petit said.
