Police have arrested a Tesla driver who had attacked several motorists in the Los Angeles, California area in recent weeks.
Videos of various road rage incidents involving the Tesla driver had appeared on social media in the last couple weeks. One dashcam video showed the Tesla driver cut off another driver, but clipped bumpers as he jumped into the other driver’s lane.
As the other motorist began calling the police, the Tesla driver now ahead of him in traffic suddenly stopped his car and jumped out of the vehicle, wearing a green shirt and a black neck gaiter, and wielding a pipe. The Tesla driver can then be heard on the dashcam, striking the other driver’s car three times.
In another incident, the Tesla driver simply slammed on the breaks in front of another motorist, before stepping out of his car. The Tesla driver was wearing the same green shirt as in the other video, but his face was not obscured by the black neck gaiter. The Tesla driver again carried a pipe and struck the front of the motorist’s vehicle.
After the Tesla driver delivered that strike, the motorist drove forward, hitting the Tesla driver before merging back into traffic to get away.
On Monday, California Highway Patrol arrested the suspected Tesla driver in the road rage videos, and identified him as 36-year-old Nathaniel Radimak.
In a press release, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon said Radimak was charged with four counts each of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury and criminal threats. Radimak was also charged with a felony count of vandalism, two misdemeanor counts of vandalism and one misdemeanor count of elder abuse.
Gascon said Radimak is the suspect in a Nov. 9 incident in which he is accused of threatening toi attack a woman at a storage facility in Atwater Village. Later that day, he allegedly got out of his vehicle and threatened a different woman on a freeway and broke one of her headlights.
In another, January incident, Radimak is accused of threatening to assault a 74-year-old woman outside a doctor’s office in Glendale.
Radimak has a separate pending case where he was accused of attacking another driver in a similar road rage incident that occurred in Hollywood in January 2020. After police searched his car, they allegedly found steroids and more than $30,000 in his possession. He was charged in that case with one felony count of possession for sale of a controlled substance and one misdemeanor count of battery.
Radimak’s criminal history reportedly spans two decades and multiple states, and Gascon’s office asked a judge to have him preventatively detained as a flight risk.
Los Angeles area news anchor Gigi Graciette tweeted that Radimak’s bail was set at more than $5 million.
ABC News correspondent Alex Stone also tweeted that the California Highway Patrol had seized Radimak’s Tesla.
Radimak is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on February 14.
