A Wyoming driver who, by his own account to a trooper, brandished a handgun and fired it into the air after being cut off on Interstate 80 is in the Summit County Jail, after a Utah Highway Patrol stop twenty miles from where another driver reported a gun pointed directly at him and a shot ringing out.
Source: Gephardt Daily
The case began with a call to dispatch from a driver travelling on Interstate 80 in Summit County, Utah. According to the arrest document cited by Gephardt Daily, the caller reported that a black Mazda was tailgating his vehicle near mile marker 146 on the interstate.
The caller told dispatchers the Mazda then drove up alongside the vehicle he was riding in with a second person, his cousin, and pointed a handgun directly at them. In the words recorded in the arrest document, the citizen advised that he and his cousin ducked, and that they heard a shot go off.
The stop, twenty miles later
A Utah Highway Patrol trooper stopped the vehicle at mile marker 126 on Interstate 80, twenty miles west of the first reported encounter. The driver was identified as Tyler Asay, 30. He had two passengers with him, and troopers say he had a black handgun in his possession.
Questioned at the roadside, Asay admitted brandishing his weapon, according to the trooper's report quoted by Gephardt Daily. He also admitted firing the weapon into the air, the report says, describing it as a show of force toward the other driver because he had been cut off. KSL, reporting the same arrest from Park City, identified Asay as a Wyoming man and said he was booked into the Summit County Jail for investigation of two counts of aggravated assault.
Four firearms, an open container and a filed-off serial number
During a search of the vehicle, troopers located three more firearms, bringing the total found in the vehicle to four, as well as an open alcohol container. One of the firearms had its serial number filed off, with obvious file marks, according to the arrest document.
The trooper wrote that a records check run through the Summit County dispatch centre found Asay to be a restricted person — a legal status under which a person is barred from possessing firearms. The arrest document does not state in the reporting why Asay holds that status, and no reason has been made public in the accounts published so far. Questioned about the search findings, Asay advised the trooper that he had been the one drinking from the open container, and he admitted owning the firearm with the filed-off serial number, the report says.
The charges Asay faces
Asay was arrested for investigation of two counts of aggravated assault involving road rage, a second-degree felony; prohibited possession of a dangerous weapon by a category II restricted person, a class A misdemeanour; unlawful alteration of an identifying mark on a handgun, a class A misdemeanour; and having an open container or drinking alcohol in a vehicle, a class C misdemeanour. Arrest for investigation is not a conviction: prosecutors must still decide what formal charges, if any, to file, and Asay is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
Interstate 80 is the main east-west freight and travel corridor across northern Utah, linking Salt Lake City with Park City, the Wyoming line and, for thousands of Punjabi and other long-haul truckers, the cross-country route toward the Midwest. A gun pointed from a moving car on that corridor is exactly the kind of road-rage escalation highway patrols across the western United States warn turns a routine cut-off into a killing. Drivers who are threatened on the highway are advised not to engage, to create distance and to report the vehicle to dispatch as soon as it is safe to do so.
What happens next is a prosecutorial review in Summit County: the county attorney will decide whether the investigation counts become formal charges, and Asay will make a first court appearance from the Summit County Jail if charges are filed. The Highway Patrol has not reported any injuries in the incident, and neither the other driver nor Asay's two passengers were reported hurt. Awaaz Punjab will update this story if formal charges or a court date are announced.