Road rage shootings in Miami Valley increasing; man arrested in connection with Sunday incident

HARRISON TOWNSHIP — Concerns about road rage in the Miami Valley have been on the rise as two people have died in the past week from road rage shootings.

Douglas Sutton, 56 years old, has been arrested in connection to the road rage killing at the Webster, Needmore intersection on Sunday afternoon.

>>RELATED: Man dead after road rage shooting incident in Harrison Township

Law enforcement arrested him at a Fairborn hotel, Sunday night.

Sutton will be charged with murder, felonious assault, and shooting over prohibited premises with firearm specifications, according to prosecutors.

Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputies were called to investigate the incident that may have traveled along Needmore Road for 5 minutes but ended in a tragedy.

“Somebody just got shot, drive-by shooting,” a 9-1-1 call to Montgomery County dispatchers said.

“I think it was just one shot, the person that was the passenger in the car is sitting here screaming and crying on the side of the road here,” another 9-1-1 call said.

Deputies said it appeared to be a road rage problem between two drivers that took place over the span of about three traffic lights and a couple of miles.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous, we have a young man, 22 years old, now deceased because someone didn’t like how someone else was driving, it’s ridiculous,” Major Jeremy Roy said.

>>RELATED: Person of interest in custody after deadly road rage shooting in Harrison Township

The coroner’s office has not released the identity of the 22-year-old man killed on Sunday.

Kelcey Boles saw flowers left Tuesday near the intersection, to honor the victim.

“You got people out here that don’t care, they just want to do something bad because they’re having a bad day,” Boles said.

In the last week, this is the second road rage incident where someone lost their life. On August 29, a truck driver died after a road rage incident in the Sidney area of Shelby County.

>>RELATED: ‘He was my future;’ Girlfriend of man killed in road rage shooting in Sidney speaks out

The nationwide numbers show an increase in road rage incidents.

The number of road rage incidents is staggering. In 2021, a person was shot in a road rage incident every 17 hours.

Nearly two-thirds of road rage incidents involving a gun in 2021 ended in injury or death.

Over 130 people were shot and killed due to road rage in 2021.

Those who study road rage behavior say, that to protect yourself in a road rage situation, don’t try to get even, just get away.

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