PORT ANGELES – A road rage incident in Port Angeles that ended with a machete attack has landed a suspect in jail on an assault charge.
On Monday, April 8, at about 8:00pm Port Angeles Police officers got a report of a road rage incident that began at Front and Race where a truck and a car were side by side at the stop light. Police report a passenger in the truck told the driver of the car, who was talking on a cell phone, that he should hang up and drive.
That sparked the aggressive driving that went up Race Street and west on Lauridsen. The two vehicles stopped near Lauridsen and Francis where the driver who had been on the cell phone got out and punched the truck driven by the other motorist. The suspect then drove to his own home nearby, came back and found that a third vehicle was there, driven by people who were acquainted with the people in the truck.
Near the library, the suspect who had been on the cell phone used his vehicle to block the third vehicle in, then got out of his car armed with a machete, approached the third car and shattered the driver’s window with his machete, which caused shattered glass to cut the face of the woman who was at the wheel. The woman was able to speed away.
The man with the machete wasn’t done. He got back into his car, and moments later found the truck in a nearby alley off Peabody. He got out of his car with his machete and confronted the man and woman near the truck. Police say that by that time, the man who had been driving the truck had armed himself with a large wrench.
The suspect swung his machete at the man with the wrench, missed, but damaged the truck with the machete. The man with the machete got back in his car and left the area.
Officers located 36-year-old Christopher Lee at his nearby home, arrested him, and booked him into the jail for Assault and Malicious Mischief.
The investigation continues in cooperation with the Prosecutor’s Office.