A trucker is in recovery after being attacked by another driver wielding a sword in Ohio last week.
The attack happened on December 19th at a Pilot truck stop near London, Ohio.
According to ABC 6 News, 55-year-old truck driver, Dennis Brown, a truck driver of 37 years, was hauling medical supplies to Indiana when he stopped to fuel up at the Pilot truck stop. Brown says it was raining and visibility was poor, so he ended up pulling into the exit of the truck stop by accident, and that’s when the trouble began.
“It was raining real hard. I could barely see. So I accidentally pulled in the exit instead of the entrance. The other driver was hostile. He is blowing his horn, putting his hands up inside his cab,” Brown said.
The two then exited their trucks and confronted each other in the parking lot, rain still coming down, when the angry driver began verbally abusing Brown.
[“He said] ‘If you ain’t going to move, I got something for your a__ N-word,’”Brown recounted.
“As he pulled the sword out of the case he went to swing toward my neck…and that is when I reached up and tried to block the sword. When he went to swing the sword, in my mind it is either going to be my neck or my hands,” Brown said.
“I don’t know if he was trying to kill me or what. I was afraid for my life.”
A violent case of trucker road rage lands one driver in the hospital and the other in hot water with the law.Dennis Morgan has another surgery tomorrow after Madison County deputies say he was attacked with a sword. “In my mind it was either going to be my neck or my hands.” pic.twitter.com/EZISAwg2jQ
— Lu Ann Stoia (@stoiawsyx6) December 29, 2020
Brown then managed to wrangle the sword away from his attacker and stored it in his own truck, calling 911 as the attacker fled to his rig and jumped the curb as he drove away.
As Brown waited for authorities, he got on Facebook live to share the incident, which is how his wife found out he had been attacked.
“He said I can’t breathe. When he said I can’t breathe my heart dropped and I wasn’t sure if he was dying. I had no idea,” Quinta said.
“The only thing I can do is pray for someone who believed they could attack someone like that and get away with it. Spew hate. He should have been arrested right then and there. He wasn’t. And I am angry about that. But all we can do is put it in God’s hands. And my husband is alive and that is all I can be thankful for.”
For now, the driver has been charged with aggravated assault. A grand jury is expected to review the case next month, but for now Brown is focusing on healing his hand, and will undergo surgery on Wednesday, December 30th for further repairs.
“He was a hot-headed truck driver. I don’t know, he had a point to prove. He just had a point to prove,” Brown said.
“In trucking back in the day, we helped each other. We don’t fight each other. We help each other and this guy, well that wasn’t him.”