Road rage cross the line with gunfire

SANTA BARBARA — A 59-year-old Atascadero man was arrested at gunpoint Tuesday after expressing his road rage with the use of a handgun.

Alisos Street in Santa Barbara is just a small, two-lane “everyday neighborhood” thoroughfare that plenty of kids walk down heading to school and back.

But when William Anthony of Atascadero found the sparse traffic simply too much to bear and engaged in some classically disrespectful hand-gesturing with another passing motorist, his blood began to boil.

Rather than waving the other driver past or simply pulling over to make more room for other vehicles, Anthony found a more emphatic way to enforce his dominion of the roads: he pulled out a handgun and fired it into the air three times over the head of the other driver. Luckily, the shots were aimed high enough to avoid contact with nearby homes, pedestrians and motorists.

Apparently satisfied that he had sufficiently impressed the other driver with his personal disdain, Anthony casually drove away and entered the 101 southbound freeway.  His next encounter with other drivers came just three miles south of the shooting scene, when he was summarily pulled over by Santa Barbara Police units and immediately arrested at gunpoint.
Anthony, 59, was subsequently booked on possession of a loaded firearm, brandishing a weapon, negligent discharge of a firearm and driving under the influence.