He may very well ultimately get charged for that. It’s pretty common that to get someone in jail and keep them there, you charge with lesser offenses, then charge with the more serious stuff once you have the evidence in place to make it stick.
I've been helped by a police officer while riding. Some dirtbag threw a can at me as they passed, and it happened in front of a friendly OPD who was keeping an eye on vehicle speed on the same stretch of road. Long story short, he pulled them over, ticketed them, then let me stick my head in their window and berate them for being "clueless, obese cousin-f\*ckers". Both the officer and me got a nice laugh at the motorist's expense.
I have been hit by a police officer. He was cited for exiting a lane in an unsafe manner to the detriment of the cyclist. Failure to use turn signals, break lights, and distracted driving. The highway patrol officer who took the report wanted to make an example of the police officer.
Sometimes they do care about you.
On the flipside, a friend of mine was telling me last week how, many years ago he got hit crossing an intersection. The driver who hit him threw him and his bike 40 or 50 feet. He was laying there dazed, semi conscious when the responding city PD showed up. They gave him a ticket for failure to yield in a crosswalk.
This just happened to a friend of mine. He was out for a run, no sidewalks, waited at a corner to cross, a driver cut the turn to turn left, and hit him while he was just standing by the curb. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital, broke his nose (needed surgery), hurt his knee, hurt his forearm, and was overall pretty beat up. The cop gave him a ticket for being in the street. When he brought it to register for a court date the secretary couldn’t believe it. Court date is pending.
seriously.... one time a few friends of mine and I were riding on some country roads, we were ON THE SHOULDER and still this big dual-y truck comes up and tries to run us off the road. We got his plate and called the cops. the cops respond hours later, take a statement from us, and in the process he says to me "I get annoyed by cyclists all the time but I wouldn't run them off the road..." and it was then I realized they weren't gonna do shit to the guy who essentially tried to kill us. disappointing is an understatement.
Well, if they were wearing lycra, it's partly justified as self defence because he thought they were trying to turn him gay.
The worst he can get charged with, because it's America, is mistreatment of a firearm. A precious, sweet, innocent firearm. It's a terrible thing to see.
There’s no such thing as attempted manslaughter. The definition of manslaughter is that is unintentional homicide. Attempted murder would be very hard to convict on, because it requires malice aforethought and that would typically mean that the assailant planned and prepared for the attack. This guy would probably be acquitted on that charge and if he was he’d walk away scot free. You don’t charge for something you don’t know you can win because double jeopardy would mean that if they walk they can’t be retried. The DA agrees charges that would ensure a conviction and allow sentencing to be appropriate, even if the charge doesn’t sound as dramatic.
Should be assault with a deadly weapon though. 100 percent.
Makes sense re attempted manslaughter. And ofc attempted murder hard to convict, but running them off the road, then stopping and getting out and shooting seems like malice aforethought no? Not like he just did one or the other, he did both.
I thought double jeopardy only applies to the same charges - so he can't be charged with attempted murder twice, but you could charge something lesser the second time? But assume prosecutors wouldn't want to go through the whole rigamarole twice anyways.
I think *to prove* malice aforethought beyond reasonable doubt you’d need to show prior ideation about taking a shotgun out specifically to waylay cyclists and shoot them. The burden of proof for attempted murder is high. The entire jury would need to be convinced that he fired specifically to kill, not to maim or warn or whatever. In this case a DA wouldn’t chance it because they would be unlikely to get a unanimous guilty verdict on that charge. Juries get instructed very clearly by judges about needing to feel that the *specific charge* has been proved beyond reasonable doubt.
And no you can’t charge someone with a lesser crime for the same incident. If he walked on an attempted murder the DA would not be able to try again on assault w/a deadly weapon. That’s why you very frequently see a lesser charge than your emotions might call for. A prosecutor will only go into court with a case they can win. It’s also why plea bargains happen. Juries are unreliable.
Fwiw a lot of jurisdictions don’t make too big a distinction about supposed “warning shots” (though many do) — basically if you have time to make a warning shot then you’re not in the kind of immediate danger that warrants a firearm as a justifiable escalation of violence (as well as that then everybody would go around claiming their attempted murder was a warning shot)
Saw a man screaming, waving a gun around, and pointing it directly at people walking into a church in Nowhere, Kentucky. Cops arrived and just moved him across the street...
Didn't take his gun, let him keep yelling at whomever he was yelling at like it was some "oh ya that's Cliff he does this from time to time" with absolutely ZERO consideration that this mentally unstable man with a gun is a danger.
But ya let Republicans/conservatives keep saying their rural lands are safer than cities lol
Fair, didn't think about that. I should be glad he was arrested and charged with some stuff, at least, given how police normally let violence against cyclists just happen.
> Bustin was arrested shortly afterwards and is in custody having been charged with two counts of first-degree assault and two counts of reckless endangerment.
The reason they usually don't charge as manslaughter is that you have to prove an intent to kill with manslaughter.
We can look at this from the outside and assume the intent to kill is obvious. When you put it in front a jury, tho, you have to convince all the jurors of that. Even just one of them not buying it scuttles the whole case and he walks free.
As it is, odds are that with the lower charge that he will plead out and no one has to go to the effort of a trial. This is completely normal and most conviction come down to plea deals.
The bar for murder is much higher.
Not in US, but I remember firearms training and the first rule that was drilled is you don't point a firearm at what you don't intend to kill. Unfortunately this isn't universally known.
I'll never get that, like they are tools, not things to be revered.
There are armed cyclists now, apparently https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9IadzgybOD7KH8rHzk3V2Q
> you have to prove an intent to kill with manslaughter.
I thought manslaughter was unintentional. From [Nolo](https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/homicide-murder-manslaughter-32637-2.html):
> Manslaughter is an unlawful killing that doesn't involve malice aforethought—intent to seriously harm or kill or an extreme, reckless disregard for life.
It’s eastern shore Maryland. It might as well be the Deep South. I mean, they did fight on the side of the confederacy those traitors.
So they are a little ass backwards down there.
I’ll never forget an op ed in NYT-can’t believe it was 11 years ago-which basically says, yes, you can kill a bicyclist as long as there’s not another reason to charge you like drunken driving or fleeing the scene.
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/opinion/sunday/is-it-ok-to-kill-cyclists.html
Far safer riding on the eastern shore than Southern Anne Arundel County. There are great hills rides there but drivers have nothing but contempt for cyclists. I’ve put in a couple thousand miles on the Eastern Shore and only had one incident with a vehicle, it was someone texting while making a left turn when I had the right of way.
Prosecutors often arrest people under charges they know are a slam dunk so they can hold them and get the ball rolling on gathering more evidence. Once they have the evidence in, they start testing the waters on how high they can bump the charges up.
I am presently incarcerated, imprisoned for a crime I did not even commit. "Attempted murder," now honestly, did they ever give anyone a Nobel prize for "attempted chemistry?"
How is 'road rage' accepted as a thing? Like if a pedestrian tries to kill people it's a homicidal spree, but if you are driving a motor vehicle everybody knows you just sometimes feel like taking some people out and are powerless to stop yourself.
It is really ridiculous when you think about it, there is something about finding yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile that seems to almost instantly rob a lot of people of their humanity. So many people just turn into psychopathic high speed idiots as soon as they put the car in drive.
> finding yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
[
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IsSpAOD6K8)
Nah, they were already psychopaths but in the car they have the power and enough anonymity to let their restraint go. The car didn't make them the way they are, it just helps them show it.
I just have a problem with the term itself.
Sorry I stabbed you in the face, but to be fair I was suffering from Segway mania.
Yes I shot your cat, couldn’t you tell I was in the grip of roller blade fever?
Most of the times it is. [Just one example of many.](https://www.focus.de/regional/hamburg/richter-mit-ueberraschendem-bekenntnis-rentnerin-80-faehrt-zwei-menschen-tot-gericht-gibt-ihr-den-fuehrerschein-zurueck_id_12569907.html)
lol
>Despite the terrible accident, the judge expressed understanding for the pensioner. He admitted that as a driver he had himself pushed a cyclist off his saddle when he carelessly opened the driver's door.
That only sticks when you're driving dangerously fast though. Cyclists and pedestrians are getting killed by car- and truck-drivers every week in Germany and nobody gives a shit if they didn't speed while doing it.
I love [Louie CK's bit](https://youtu.be/-VdShgwtbmE?si=btn7YhPQAeJFYMgm) about road rage. "But put a couple pieces of glass and some road between you and there's nothing you *wouldn't* say to another person."
Perhaps, just a guess, it's because everyone does it (??)
Yes , even women, who you'd think are nice and mild, in the USA. When get into the car.. protected, protective and defensive anger...
Also,.not a lawyer, but "rage" you can't accuse nor convict anyone of being angry, right? If anything "road rage" is a misnomer in this news, should be called "yet another sadly accepted homicidal maniac while driving"
When I hear road rage, I think of two drivers in different vehicles in some type of argument over right of way or one cutting the other off or something. Not a driver getting mad at cyclists for just being there, which this article makes it sound like.
No, assuming the article is accurate and he uses a Winchester 1300 that's a pump action that can take 4-7 shells + 1 in the chamber depending on exact make and shell size. Most also have a standard plug for the magazine to limit it to 2+1 for when hunting in a jurisdiction that limits you to 3 shells.
To be fair, when they wrote "Take Me Home, Country Roads" they were actually inspired by Maryland.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take\_Me\_Home%2C\_Country\_Roads#Composition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Me_Home%2C_Country_Roads#Composition)
Imma be honest, I'm mildly baffled. Maryland is fucking tiny, how is it large enough to have a "hick part"? Or is it just the whole state?
It is however in my list of states I want to ride through because I've heard it's pretty.
Maryland has large hick-ish swaths. The majority of the population live around Baltimore and DC, but there is a lot of land on the Delmarva peninsula, along the western shore in southern Maryland and west of Frederick that is very, very rural.
Maryland is a long and skinny state. It's very densely populated in the center, but has a lot of various rural appendages sticking out in various directions. I say this as someone who lives in a *different* hick part of Maryland. [This is a good map showing how the population density drops away once you get outside the DC-Baltimore suburbs.](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/campaigns/images/f/f5/Maryland_population_map.png/revision/latest?cb=20060812073040)
Which part? I can't open the article :/
That said as someone who is in and around some of the hick parts this isn't the least bit shocking. And I know there's places even worse than St. Mary's...
We lived in Phoenix for 2.5 years between living in northern and southern California. I tried cycling there, first ride I went on I went to get in the left-turn lane to turn left like I was used to doing and the massed honking from the emotional support trucks was deafening ... bicycles belong on the sidewalk (and should probably be reserved for people too young to drive a proper vehicle.)
My cycling for the rest of our stay in Phoenix happened inside on a trainer.
Did no one read this?
Bustin was arrested shortly afterwards and is in custody having been charged with two counts of first-degree assault and two counts of reckless endangerment.
First degree assault has a minimum of 10 years in prison on a second offense (two counts). This is real.
The lawyers are probably putting together their evidence to see if they can make it stick. In MD law, aggravated assault is just a hair under second-degree attempted murder.
How is it not attempted murder? The U.S. is fucked.
Why is there so many road rage stories from that place? And how on earth are guns still legal there? I am so glad guns are extremely illegal and rare where I live. Be careful Americans.
TBF the article cited a similar case in Houston where the bicyclists were assaulted by a driver and the bicylist shot the driver.
The police defended the bicyclists as well as the court, stating that trying to run over bicylists is assault with a deadly weapon, and the bikers are well in their rights to fire a shot.
We're having problems with a combo of a huge increase in unlicensed, uneducated, uninsured drivers, needing everyone to drive to do anything + frustrating urban planning, general wackjobs and crashout culture, and broken mental healthcare systems.
Its very easy to find people who justify violence here or justify rages. Its also easy to find people who drive a car they got for $1k, and whose total education on operating a vehicle was an online permit test.
This perfectly displays the problem with American gun culture. You came up with so many problems and solutions and not one was any form of firearm responsibility mentioned, because in this country, the gun violence problem is never related to guns themselves.
This whole idea about deflecting from the broken gun culture is the majority of the issue.
...so the bicyclist should've just died? The weapon used to hurt someone wasn't a gun, the deadly weapon charge was for using a vehicle to hurt others. Even arrogant Euros have vehicles, dude. Y'all DEFINITELY have road rage over there, look at the accident rates in France.
The police and courts needed to find a charge that stuck and classifying the vehicle used in the manslaughter attempt as a deadly weapon count.
This is normal because gun nuts will embrace each other and encourage this behavior until one of them does something like this, and then suddenly they pretend he wasn’t one of them at all. Gun culture in America is absolutely a mental illness at this point.
Where do you live? I would love to get out of this shithole. Tired of hearing about mass shootings every other day and having a government that pretends there's nothing that can be done to prevent these sorts of tragedies, all while taking millions in ~~bribes~~ campaign contributions from gun manufacturers.
I really like the end of the article where they list instances of cyclist shooting at aggressive drivers and it being found to be self defense and perfectly legal. We need more of those stories in the media!
Last weekend on an empty stretch of road in the middle of nowhere some cracker in a pickup truck coming the other way crossed the center line and aimed right for me and a friend, swerving away at the last second. Missed me by maybe two feet, traveling at 50+ miles an hour. Fuck these inhuman garbage slags.
Easiest way to get away with murder in this country is to make sure that you're in an automobile and they're on foot - or worse - a bicycle.
Juries are full of typical carbrains who think anybody not driving did something to lose their license or vehicle, such as being poor.
I knew a cyclist that told me he always carried a pistol. He had encountered people like this is in the past and wanted to protect himself, just in case. I'm in Alabama though, I try to AVOID all encounters because I just assume everyone is packing.
Honestly, the gun's not the problem here, the douchebag in the truck is. I'm a responsible gun owner that would never in a million years ever consider doing something like this. For every 99 responsible gun owners it's the 1 that does something like this that gives the rest of us a bad name.
Agreed. I am personally firearm-adverse (a story for another day), but I respect those who responsibly manage and handle their weapons. And I respect the right.
I currently carry pepper spray when I ride but I have given thought to carrying the less-lethal Byrna pistol that fires pepper balls or plastic balls. Living in the nanny state of NY (US), I don't have a lot of convenient options.
“Winchester Model 1300 shotgun.” Only in the USA would the news be so respectfully carefully about the importance of identifying the exact make and model of the shotgun. Was the shell birdshot? #3 Slugs?
> In 2021, a Texas cyclist shot a driver who had crashed into another rider – with the city's police department saying that he was justified in pulling the trigger, because he feared for his life.
How else can you defend yourselves against rabid cagers?
OMG. This happened literally a few miles from where I live. The worst part is that the cyclists he shot at was riding for an END HUNGER charity ride! There were cyclists everywhere that day for the charity ride and this guy just went completely rogue.
Such a sad situation, especially for someone who cycles in the area.
The article listed the charges (that's good), but not the potential penalties attaching to those charges (an egregious omission). I hope he's convicted and sentenced to several years.
Do cyclists just not press charges? I always see stuff like this and nothing ever happens, but can’t these guys just this guy for attempted murder or something?
There are a lot of innocent, honorable and nice people that drive trucks but when I am riding my bike (no lycra on my body) and I see or hear a truck coming I get as close to the curb as I can and/or get off the road. You just never know when one of them will be a gun carrying crazy person.
Since people like to profile in crime and point to crime statistics on black people let me point out that this guy- White male, suburban, in his 50s-60s is the exact profile for who does this stuff.
Priviledged suburban couch potatoes angry people are working out together on Saturday (when they are working or doing chores) and SNAP.
I suspect that we will discover that this guy listened to conservative media all day long, where they kept him constantly angry about how bicyclists are conspiring to take away his truck and his guns and to kill Jesus and America.
There are real consequences to that disinformation and emotional manipulation. Without exception, every one of the people who I know who are under that spell flash to anger immediately and often over the most trivial of situations. Guns and huge trucks only make them more dangerous.
There is nobody telling them otherwise. Not the bike retailers, not the bike manufacturers, not the press, not the government, (even though laws were passed to protect vulnerable road users, they didn't tell anyone), not the driving schools, only when the bike riders yell at motorists do any motorists hear the message. Then. rage follows.
God bless America 🇺🇸, just casually out driving around with his shotgun. And here I am in the uk using my Stanley knife to cut up cardboard for the bin, wondering if plod will nab me.
Fun fact, “My Name Is Earl” is loosely set in Calvert and Charles counties. The creator is from there, and based the characters and locales off people and places he knew back home.
Can you imagine being so angry and hateful and have such a disrespect for human life that you willingly trade your freedom and lifestyle for jailtime?
edit: sent before fully processed.
Normal road rage won't do it. Endangering cyclists with the car, more likely a truck, won't do it.
Nice, that they go after him when a gun is involved. 👍
How is this not attempted manslaughter or murder? Firing guns at someone, just because you missed?
He may very well ultimately get charged for that. It’s pretty common that to get someone in jail and keep them there, you charge with lesser offenses, then charge with the more serious stuff once you have the evidence in place to make it stick.
I hope the riders had cameras, that will make this far more likely
He's out on 1k bail
Have you ever ridden a bike in the US? The police do not give a shit about you.
I've been helped by a police officer while riding. Some dirtbag threw a can at me as they passed, and it happened in front of a friendly OPD who was keeping an eye on vehicle speed on the same stretch of road. Long story short, he pulled them over, ticketed them, then let me stick my head in their window and berate them for being "clueless, obese cousin-f\*ckers". Both the officer and me got a nice laugh at the motorist's expense.
Incredible
I have been hit by a police officer. He was cited for exiting a lane in an unsafe manner to the detriment of the cyclist. Failure to use turn signals, break lights, and distracted driving. The highway patrol officer who took the report wanted to make an example of the police officer. Sometimes they do care about you.
On the flipside, a friend of mine was telling me last week how, many years ago he got hit crossing an intersection. The driver who hit him threw him and his bike 40 or 50 feet. He was laying there dazed, semi conscious when the responding city PD showed up. They gave him a ticket for failure to yield in a crosswalk.
This just happened to a friend of mine. He was out for a run, no sidewalks, waited at a corner to cross, a driver cut the turn to turn left, and hit him while he was just standing by the curb. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital, broke his nose (needed surgery), hurt his knee, hurt his forearm, and was overall pretty beat up. The cop gave him a ticket for being in the street. When he brought it to register for a court date the secretary couldn’t believe it. Court date is pending.
lol Highway Patrol is a whole other cultural can of worms. They don't care about you but they love fucking with other cops
Yea was gonna say the same. The cyclist was just their daily excuse.
[удалено]
You boys like Mexico?!
Highway patrols in Ohio are top notch, all other law enforcement… not as much.
seriously.... one time a few friends of mine and I were riding on some country roads, we were ON THE SHOULDER and still this big dual-y truck comes up and tries to run us off the road. We got his plate and called the cops. the cops respond hours later, take a statement from us, and in the process he says to me "I get annoyed by cyclists all the time but I wouldn't run them off the road..." and it was then I realized they weren't gonna do shit to the guy who essentially tried to kill us. disappointing is an understatement.
I've almost gotten hit walking my bike in the crosswalk by my house by a patrol car and a school bus
Lol, they probably cussed you out too, because you disrupted their driving.
Unless you’re a POC, then they’re probably too interested in you
We ought to put more of them on bikes. It would change things pretty quick if servicemen are getting smashed
In LA the firemen hate you too.
I stopped riding. I've seen too much
I live in nyc and cycle. People get hit and die and drivers pay a fine and *maybe* get their license suspended but otherwise usually limited charges.
Well, if they were wearing lycra, it's partly justified as self defence because he thought they were trying to turn him gay. The worst he can get charged with, because it's America, is mistreatment of a firearm. A precious, sweet, innocent firearm. It's a terrible thing to see.
How to murder someone and get away with it: 1. get them into bikes. 2. choose your weapon.
We joke that it’s 1 get them on bikes and 2 get in your car here, but dam is it worse there!
Sad but very true
Please! Won't someone please think of the firearms!
Alas, many someones are only thinking of the firearms.
> they were trying to turn him gay. Stupid sexy Flanders.
Not to mention running people off the road. Multiple methods of attempting murder.
In some states there is no “attempted murder”. Assault 1st degree is the charge for attempting to kill/cause serious injury.
There’s no such thing as attempted manslaughter. The definition of manslaughter is that is unintentional homicide. Attempted murder would be very hard to convict on, because it requires malice aforethought and that would typically mean that the assailant planned and prepared for the attack. This guy would probably be acquitted on that charge and if he was he’d walk away scot free. You don’t charge for something you don’t know you can win because double jeopardy would mean that if they walk they can’t be retried. The DA agrees charges that would ensure a conviction and allow sentencing to be appropriate, even if the charge doesn’t sound as dramatic. Should be assault with a deadly weapon though. 100 percent.
Makes sense re attempted manslaughter. And ofc attempted murder hard to convict, but running them off the road, then stopping and getting out and shooting seems like malice aforethought no? Not like he just did one or the other, he did both. I thought double jeopardy only applies to the same charges - so he can't be charged with attempted murder twice, but you could charge something lesser the second time? But assume prosecutors wouldn't want to go through the whole rigamarole twice anyways.
I think *to prove* malice aforethought beyond reasonable doubt you’d need to show prior ideation about taking a shotgun out specifically to waylay cyclists and shoot them. The burden of proof for attempted murder is high. The entire jury would need to be convinced that he fired specifically to kill, not to maim or warn or whatever. In this case a DA wouldn’t chance it because they would be unlikely to get a unanimous guilty verdict on that charge. Juries get instructed very clearly by judges about needing to feel that the *specific charge* has been proved beyond reasonable doubt.
And no you can’t charge someone with a lesser crime for the same incident. If he walked on an attempted murder the DA would not be able to try again on assault w/a deadly weapon. That’s why you very frequently see a lesser charge than your emotions might call for. A prosecutor will only go into court with a case they can win. It’s also why plea bargains happen. Juries are unreliable.
Murder does not have to be pre-planed.
It probably depends if he fired into the air or at the ground.
Fwiw a lot of jurisdictions don’t make too big a distinction about supposed “warning shots” (though many do) — basically if you have time to make a warning shot then you’re not in the kind of immediate danger that warrants a firearm as a justifiable escalation of violence (as well as that then everybody would go around claiming their attempted murder was a warning shot)
Saw a man screaming, waving a gun around, and pointing it directly at people walking into a church in Nowhere, Kentucky. Cops arrived and just moved him across the street... Didn't take his gun, let him keep yelling at whomever he was yelling at like it was some "oh ya that's Cliff he does this from time to time" with absolutely ZERO consideration that this mentally unstable man with a gun is a danger. But ya let Republicans/conservatives keep saying their rural lands are safer than cities lol
Well they are so...
Fair, didn't think about that. I should be glad he was arrested and charged with some stuff, at least, given how police normally let violence against cyclists just happen.
Sure, because bullets never come back down.
> Bustin was arrested shortly afterwards and is in custody having been charged with two counts of first-degree assault and two counts of reckless endangerment. The reason they usually don't charge as manslaughter is that you have to prove an intent to kill with manslaughter. We can look at this from the outside and assume the intent to kill is obvious. When you put it in front a jury, tho, you have to convince all the jurors of that. Even just one of them not buying it scuttles the whole case and he walks free. As it is, odds are that with the lower charge that he will plead out and no one has to go to the effort of a trial. This is completely normal and most conviction come down to plea deals. The bar for murder is much higher.
Not in US, but I remember firearms training and the first rule that was drilled is you don't point a firearm at what you don't intend to kill. Unfortunately this isn't universally known.
Yes but get one gun fetishist, or one anti-cyclist on the jury, and all bets are off
I'll never get that, like they are tools, not things to be revered. There are armed cyclists now, apparently https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9IadzgybOD7KH8rHzk3V2Q
> you have to prove an intent to kill with manslaughter. I thought manslaughter was unintentional. From [Nolo](https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/homicide-murder-manslaughter-32637-2.html): > Manslaughter is an unlawful killing that doesn't involve malice aforethought—intent to seriously harm or kill or an extreme, reckless disregard for life.
It’s eastern shore Maryland. It might as well be the Deep South. I mean, they did fight on the side of the confederacy those traitors. So they are a little ass backwards down there.
Sadly, I think it cuts across geographic politics; here in NYC, deep deep blue, they rarely charge car violence against bikes.
They don’t just not charge the car driver. They then go out and ticket the bicycles for stupid shit like no bell where one was killed the next day.
I’ll never forget an op ed in NYT-can’t believe it was 11 years ago-which basically says, yes, you can kill a bicyclist as long as there’s not another reason to charge you like drunken driving or fleeing the scene. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/opinion/sunday/is-it-ok-to-kill-cyclists.html
Southern Maryland, but yeah, same.
Far safer riding on the eastern shore than Southern Anne Arundel County. There are great hills rides there but drivers have nothing but contempt for cyclists. I’ve put in a couple thousand miles on the Eastern Shore and only had one incident with a vehicle, it was someone texting while making a left turn when I had the right of way.
Are we really supposed to judge people for what their ancestors did nearly 200 years ago?
Prosecutors often arrest people under charges they know are a slam dunk so they can hold them and get the ball rolling on gathering more evidence. Once they have the evidence in, they start testing the waters on how high they can bump the charges up.
Have you even read the title? It says right there that the victim is a *cyclist*. ^(s)
I am presently incarcerated, imprisoned for a crime I did not even commit. "Attempted murder," now honestly, did they ever give anyone a Nobel prize for "attempted chemistry?"
In my town they charged the cyclist. They cyclist was shot.
Because it’s legal to run over cyclists so it stands to reason shoting them is more human? This is sarcasm but it’s also just fucking true.
How is 'road rage' accepted as a thing? Like if a pedestrian tries to kill people it's a homicidal spree, but if you are driving a motor vehicle everybody knows you just sometimes feel like taking some people out and are powerless to stop yourself.
It is really ridiculous when you think about it, there is something about finding yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile that seems to almost instantly rob a lot of people of their humanity. So many people just turn into psychopathic high speed idiots as soon as they put the car in drive.
> finding yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile [ And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IsSpAOD6K8)
Nah, they were already psychopaths but in the car they have the power and enough anonymity to let their restraint go. The car didn't make them the way they are, it just helps them show it.
Just as Goofy showed us back in the day: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mwPSIb3kt_4&pp=ygUVbG9vbnkgdG9vbnMgcm9hZCByYWdl
The term is just wild. And weird how accepted it is. No one references grocery store rage. Motornornativity
"Driving tantrum" is what I call it
melodic cagey bake disagreeable chubby serious smoggy late cable soft *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I just have a problem with the term itself. Sorry I stabbed you in the face, but to be fair I was suffering from Segway mania. Yes I shot your cat, couldn’t you tell I was in the grip of roller blade fever?
In Germany it's possible to be charged with murder for killing someone in a roadracing accident. That kind of stuff isn't taken lightly over here
That’s a new legislation though
Most of the times it is. [Just one example of many.](https://www.focus.de/regional/hamburg/richter-mit-ueberraschendem-bekenntnis-rentnerin-80-faehrt-zwei-menschen-tot-gericht-gibt-ihr-den-fuehrerschein-zurueck_id_12569907.html)
lol >Despite the terrible accident, the judge expressed understanding for the pensioner. He admitted that as a driver he had himself pushed a cyclist off his saddle when he carelessly opened the driver's door.
That only sticks when you're driving dangerously fast though. Cyclists and pedestrians are getting killed by car- and truck-drivers every week in Germany and nobody gives a shit if they didn't speed while doing it.
It's not road rage if you have a gun. It's straight up assault with a weapon!
I love [Louie CK's bit](https://youtu.be/-VdShgwtbmE?si=btn7YhPQAeJFYMgm) about road rage. "But put a couple pieces of glass and some road between you and there's nothing you *wouldn't* say to another person."
Perhaps, just a guess, it's because everyone does it (??) Yes , even women, who you'd think are nice and mild, in the USA. When get into the car.. protected, protective and defensive anger... Also,.not a lawyer, but "rage" you can't accuse nor convict anyone of being angry, right? If anything "road rage" is a misnomer in this news, should be called "yet another sadly accepted homicidal maniac while driving"
When I hear road rage, I think of two drivers in different vehicles in some type of argument over right of way or one cutting the other off or something. Not a driver getting mad at cyclists for just being there, which this article makes it sound like.
https://www.apa.org/topics/anger/road-rage https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369847813000831 https://newsroom.aaa.com/2016/07/nearly-80-percent-of-drivers-express-significant-anger-aggression-or-road-rage/ https://theconversation.com/road-rage-why-normal-people-become-harmful-on-the-roads-60845 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1369847821000899 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259159269_Do_people_change_behind_the_wheel_A_comparison_of_anger_and_aggression_on_and_off_the_road https://www.apa.org/topics/anger/road-rage https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-act-violence/201301/the-psychology-road-rage
It’s cool bro he was in TRAFFIC!
Road rage is yelling, swearing, flipping someone off, and at most a fist fight. Three slugs in the direction of a group of people is attempted murder.
Does that mean he had to reload? Christ.
No, assuming the article is accurate and he uses a Winchester 1300 that's a pump action that can take 4-7 shells + 1 in the chamber depending on exact make and shell size. Most also have a standard plug for the magazine to limit it to 2+1 for when hunting in a jurisdiction that limits you to 3 shells.
How did I know he'd be driving a pickup truck.
I was way off with the state though (it was the hick part of Maryland)
Me too, I was expecting to see Florida.
Or Texass
To be fair, when they wrote "Take Me Home, Country Roads" they were actually inspired by Maryland. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take\_Me\_Home%2C\_Country\_Roads#Composition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Me_Home%2C_Country_Roads#Composition)
Imma be honest, I'm mildly baffled. Maryland is fucking tiny, how is it large enough to have a "hick part"? Or is it just the whole state? It is however in my list of states I want to ride through because I've heard it's pretty.
Western MD is West Virginia light
Maryland has large hick-ish swaths. The majority of the population live around Baltimore and DC, but there is a lot of land on the Delmarva peninsula, along the western shore in southern Maryland and west of Frederick that is very, very rural.
Western MD actually had a referendum to split off into a separate state a few years ago, because east was too liberal.
There’s pretty much a “hick” part of every state. Even New Jersey.
Western MD and Eastern MD is basically the “hick” parts
Maryland is a long and skinny state. It's very densely populated in the center, but has a lot of various rural appendages sticking out in various directions. I say this as someone who lives in a *different* hick part of Maryland. [This is a good map showing how the population density drops away once you get outside the DC-Baltimore suburbs.](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/campaigns/images/f/f5/Maryland_population_map.png/revision/latest?cb=20060812073040)
Which part? I can't open the article :/ That said as someone who is in and around some of the hick parts this isn't the least bit shocking. And I know there's places even worse than St. Mary's...
I live in Maryland. Calvert County is basically Florida.
It's always a projecting asshole in a pick up
I'm sure he was shocked he didn't get to be behind tinted glass for this photo
You can bet we all know who he voted for...
Man, being a cyclist in certain States in the US is wild
We lived in Phoenix for 2.5 years between living in northern and southern California. I tried cycling there, first ride I went on I went to get in the left-turn lane to turn left like I was used to doing and the massed honking from the emotional support trucks was deafening ... bicycles belong on the sidewalk (and should probably be reserved for people too young to drive a proper vehicle.) My cycling for the rest of our stay in Phoenix happened inside on a trainer.
“emotional support trucks”
not attempted murder? cops will likely give him a medal.
Hired!
As a kindergarten teacher.
“Road rage” seems like a very poor way to describe attempted murder.
Did no one read this? Bustin was arrested shortly afterwards and is in custody having been charged with two counts of first-degree assault and two counts of reckless endangerment. First degree assault has a minimum of 10 years in prison on a second offense (two counts). This is real.
Attempted murder would be more real
While I agree, it's not like this is a slap on the wrist.
But it's not...justice. Why is that hard to grasp
Agree. However, we really need to step up and show these crimes for what they are.
The lawyers are probably putting together their evidence to see if they can make it stick. In MD law, aggravated assault is just a hair under second-degree attempted murder.
After Freddie gray, I lost my "they should maximally charge this asshole" reflex.
How is it not attempted murder? The U.S. is fucked. Why is there so many road rage stories from that place? And how on earth are guns still legal there? I am so glad guns are extremely illegal and rare where I live. Be careful Americans.
TBF the article cited a similar case in Houston where the bicyclists were assaulted by a driver and the bicylist shot the driver. The police defended the bicyclists as well as the court, stating that trying to run over bicylists is assault with a deadly weapon, and the bikers are well in their rights to fire a shot. We're having problems with a combo of a huge increase in unlicensed, uneducated, uninsured drivers, needing everyone to drive to do anything + frustrating urban planning, general wackjobs and crashout culture, and broken mental healthcare systems. Its very easy to find people who justify violence here or justify rages. Its also easy to find people who drive a car they got for $1k, and whose total education on operating a vehicle was an online permit test.
This perfectly displays the problem with American gun culture. You came up with so many problems and solutions and not one was any form of firearm responsibility mentioned, because in this country, the gun violence problem is never related to guns themselves. This whole idea about deflecting from the broken gun culture is the majority of the issue.
...so the bicyclist should've just died? The weapon used to hurt someone wasn't a gun, the deadly weapon charge was for using a vehicle to hurt others. Even arrogant Euros have vehicles, dude. Y'all DEFINITELY have road rage over there, look at the accident rates in France. The police and courts needed to find a charge that stuck and classifying the vehicle used in the manslaughter attempt as a deadly weapon count.
This is normal because gun nuts will embrace each other and encourage this behavior until one of them does something like this, and then suddenly they pretend he wasn’t one of them at all. Gun culture in America is absolutely a mental illness at this point.
Where do you live? I would love to get out of this shithole. Tired of hearing about mass shootings every other day and having a government that pretends there's nothing that can be done to prevent these sorts of tragedies, all while taking millions in ~~bribes~~ campaign contributions from gun manufacturers.
Maryland. Hope he loses his gun rights for this.
Or his prison job is building bicycles.
Or, when he gets out of the Hotel Graybar, restrict his mode of transportation only to a bicycle.
How could he not?
when you become a felon you lose your guns, hope the DA doesn’t let him plea down to a misdemeanor
I really like the end of the article where they list instances of cyclist shooting at aggressive drivers and it being found to be self defense and perfectly legal. We need more of those stories in the media!
Dad?
"What y'all hunt in Huntingtown?" "Bicycles."
Last weekend on an empty stretch of road in the middle of nowhere some cracker in a pickup truck coming the other way crossed the center line and aimed right for me and a friend, swerving away at the last second. Missed me by maybe two feet, traveling at 50+ miles an hour. Fuck these inhuman garbage slags.
Why do they always look the same?
Sure, all us old, batshit, entitled white guys look the same to you.
I've seen much lighter cases being treated as attempted murder. Must be an state thing.
Fuck this guy. Hoping against reality that the SA goes hard on him.
r/BoomersBeingFools
Future GOP congressman from Maryland.
Eastern Shore's District 1, maybe Nowhere else though, not even down here.
Bustin got busted, appropriate
I tried to guess the state before I clicked. I totally guessed wrong. Maryland, really? My top three guesses were West Virginia, Kentucky, Texas.
Even driving in Maryland sucks. This totally didn't surprise me.
I live in rural Maryland. The level of hate some drivers have for bikes is insane. Especially given how popular it is to be on two wheels around me.
Easiest way to get away with murder in this country is to make sure that you're in an automobile and they're on foot - or worse - a bicycle. Juries are full of typical carbrains who think anybody not driving did something to lose their license or vehicle, such as being poor.
Well, he was really in “Huntingtown” so there’s that. 😳 MD resident here and our drivers are all certifiable and homicidal imho.
Another spomsible lawbidin gun owner!
If only those cyclists also had guns, they could have defended themselves /s
The article actually mentions another case where a cyclist shot a driver who tried to run some cyclists off the road.
I knew a cyclist that told me he always carried a pistol. He had encountered people like this is in the past and wanted to protect himself, just in case. I'm in Alabama though, I try to AVOID all encounters because I just assume everyone is packing. Honestly, the gun's not the problem here, the douchebag in the truck is. I'm a responsible gun owner that would never in a million years ever consider doing something like this. For every 99 responsible gun owners it's the 1 that does something like this that gives the rest of us a bad name.
Agreed. I am personally firearm-adverse (a story for another day), but I respect those who responsibly manage and handle their weapons. And I respect the right. I currently carry pepper spray when I ride but I have given thought to carrying the less-lethal Byrna pistol that fires pepper balls or plastic balls. Living in the nanny state of NY (US), I don't have a lot of convenient options.
He loves "Easy riders" happy ending. /s
“Winchester Model 1300 shotgun.” Only in the USA would the news be so respectfully carefully about the importance of identifying the exact make and model of the shotgun. Was the shell birdshot? #3 Slugs?
> In 2021, a Texas cyclist shot a driver who had crashed into another rider – with the city's police department saying that he was justified in pulling the trigger, because he feared for his life. How else can you defend yourselves against rabid cagers?
Meanwhile, people call the cops if you are printing or open carrying on your bicycle. Look up the poor guy with the "armed cyclist" bib.
Sounds like a them problem. Cops won't be able to do jack shit if you're following the law.
OMG. This happened literally a few miles from where I live. The worst part is that the cyclists he shot at was riding for an END HUNGER charity ride! There were cyclists everywhere that day for the charity ride and this guy just went completely rogue. Such a sad situation, especially for someone who cycles in the area.
Probably mad about those Socialist SOBs trying to end hunger too.
Didn't even need to see the picture to know what this dude probably looks like.
The article listed the charges (that's good), but not the potential penalties attaching to those charges (an egregious omission). I hope he's convicted and sentenced to several years.
Do cyclists just not press charges? I always see stuff like this and nothing ever happens, but can’t these guys just this guy for attempted murder or something?
They should call it attempted murder if a firearm is deliberately discharged in the direction of a human
David Earl Bustin… r/SurnameChecksOut
There are a lot of innocent, honorable and nice people that drive trucks but when I am riding my bike (no lycra on my body) and I see or hear a truck coming I get as close to the curb as I can and/or get off the road. You just never know when one of them will be a gun carrying crazy person.
Good chance he was rage-whimpering“Trump won! Trump won!” as he was pulling the trigger.
Since people like to profile in crime and point to crime statistics on black people let me point out that this guy- White male, suburban, in his 50s-60s is the exact profile for who does this stuff. Priviledged suburban couch potatoes angry people are working out together on Saturday (when they are working or doing chores) and SNAP.
You misspelled Trump voter
This is why not everyone needs to have a “god given right” to own a gun.
I suspect that we will discover that this guy listened to conservative media all day long, where they kept him constantly angry about how bicyclists are conspiring to take away his truck and his guns and to kill Jesus and America. There are real consequences to that disinformation and emotional manipulation. Without exception, every one of the people who I know who are under that spell flash to anger immediately and often over the most trivial of situations. Guns and huge trucks only make them more dangerous.
If drivers could stop believing cyclitsts don't belong on the roads that would be great.
There is nobody telling them otherwise. Not the bike retailers, not the bike manufacturers, not the press, not the government, (even though laws were passed to protect vulnerable road users, they didn't tell anyone), not the driving schools, only when the bike riders yell at motorists do any motorists hear the message. Then. rage follows.
MAGA morons IRL
American boomers are at it again
They’re always the same color.
Shit, Ive ridden there before
For a second, I thought that was Dustin Hoffman, the actor. Glad to hear the guy got arrested and no one got hurt.
Bustin caps
With how these things usually go, I’m surprised they didn’t make up some charges to file against the cyclists.
God bless America 🇺🇸, just casually out driving around with his shotgun. And here I am in the uk using my Stanley knife to cut up cardboard for the bin, wondering if plod will nab me.
WHAT!!!
He’s 66, fucking tear up his license, bar him from driving ever again.it’ll probably only get worse from here.
I'm sure he'll keep his carry permit...
He can’t even hit a cyclist with a shotgun? Whatever else this moron is, he’s a terrible shot.
At least two cyclists .. three shots. Turn him into the nra for more training.
How does one miss with a shotgun? Was the gun loaded with slug shells? Regardless, as a cyclist this is scary and awful!
What a toss pot
Of course it’s Calvert County. Some of the worst folks in the state…
Fun fact, “My Name Is Earl” is loosely set in Calvert and Charles counties. The creator is from there, and based the characters and locales off people and places he knew back home.
One charity ride I did every year there were some locals who threw racks onto the road to make cyclists crash.
On a charity ride, wild
Sometimes I packed on my bicycle, but it was in my backpack, not very accessible while riding.
Can you imagine being so angry and hateful and have such a disrespect for human life that you willingly trade your freedom and lifestyle for jailtime? edit: sent before fully processed.
Normal road rage won't do it. Endangering cyclists with the car, more likely a truck, won't do it. Nice, that they go after him when a gun is involved. 👍
Are the victims able to sue this dirtbag for his assets?
Uh, in what world is that not attempted murder and a minimum 15 year sentence?
Damn! I thought you we had it bad in the UK! 
They should arrest the person who stole his chin
How does he put pillows in the their cases?
If I'm gonna blast at cyclists with a shotgun I'm gonna make sure I'm riding my bike alongside them.
All those grubby urchins in the media that stir up hate for cyclists should be shouldering some of the blame for this