A truck driver was arrested after he was found pinning a woman up against his trailer on the side of a Pennsylvania highway last week.
The incident occurred on June 2nd in Franklin County, Pennsylvania on Interstate 81.
According to Herald-Mail Media, the incident started when 32-year-old truck driver Edward Nickens parked his truck at a Pilot truck stop in Hagerstown, Maryland and walked to get ammunition for his gun and two pints of Jack Daniel’s.
Nickens began drinking the liquor once he returned to the truck, so the woman he was traveling with, his girlfriend, told him he could not drive the truck. Nickens then became upset and loaded his Ruger handgun before pointing it at the woman. He threatened to kill the woman and her family, and said he would shoot her in the back of the head if she tried to leave the cab.
While at the truck stop, Nickens shot the gun into the air and into the grass towards a worker picking up trash. Nickens and his girlfriend eventually left the Pilot and headed north on I-81. The truck soon crossed into Pennsylvania and passed a weigh station where police and first responders were tending to a brush fire.
Nickens soon started shooting at passing cars through his open truck window before pulling the truck over and demanding the woman switch seats with him. The woman refused, so Nickens punched her on the right side of her face, pointed the gun at her, and told her she would die if she did not move. The woman complied, but quickly grabbed the gun off the dashboard and threw it out the window.
Nickens then pulled the woman out of the truck, retrieved the gun, and tried to force her back into the cab, but she refused. Nickens fired shots at the woman but missed, and she was able to break free of his grasp and run. Nickens chased her for a bit, but soon got back into his rig and drove away, leaving her on the side of the road.
Police arrived after receiving reports of a woman being pinned against a tractor trailer and found Nickens three miles north. He reportedly had bloodshot eyes and he had difficulty walking.
Upon searching the truck, officers found a black Ruger 9mm handgun hidden in a sneaker behind the driver’s seat, a 50 round box of ammunition with 30 rounds still inside, one shell casing, five live rounds scattered around the truck, and two Jack Daniel’s bottles – one of them empty. Nine rounds are still unaccounted for. It is unclear if any of the cars Nickens shot at on the highway were hit.
Nickens was arrested and is facing charges of attempted homicide, kidnapping, aggravated assault, terroristic threats, unlawful restraint, simple assault and reckless endangerment, and DUI. He has a preliminary hearing scheduled for June 13th. He was denied bail.