I heard a screech of brakes and angry shouting in the alleyway outside of my house. By the time I stuck my head out the door, two guys were in my front yard looking at the woman behind the wheel of a sedan. The car was pointed at the two men. I asked what was going on. “She’s crazy! She’s trying to kill us!” said the man in the white polo. The woman behind the wheel backed up. She lowered the cell phone she was holding and said she was talking to 911 and what was my address? I told her a couple of times, but she kept repeating the wrong numbers into the phone. Then she yelled to me that these men had thrown bricks and bottles at her car. I looked, and for a nicer, newer car it had a lot of damage on the fenders and…oh, hey, her rear passenger-side window was knocked out! My girlfriend was also calling 911 by this point. I asked the men if they had done this, and one guy kind of sidled towards the alley again. She hit the accelerator and he ran back on my lawn. She braked again, fortunately (especially since my car was parked right there on the street), and one of them threw a rock at her car. At this point I lamely asked everybody to calm down. The two guys told her to go away.
“I’m not leaving until the police get here or I RUN YOU OVER!”
She put her car in park, one guy crouched down, the other guy crossed the street and stood still. And right about then the police showed up. First a city police squad car, then a Metro Transit SUV. Then an ambulance (the driver had apparently clipped one of the guys in the alley). Then a state trooper (this started on the interstate near my house). My roommate ran up, pointing at the guy in the white shirt. “I want that guy booked!” she said. “I asked them what they were doing in my yard, and he said he’d pop me if I didn’t get the fuck away!”
Much questioning commenced, and I still don’t know exactly what happened. I think it was like this: a car clipped the woman’s car on the interstate next to my house. They both stopped, angry words were exchanged, the other car drove off, hitting her car again. She followed them up the off-ramp. The driver let the two men out of the car, they started throwing rocks at her car. She drove around the block, seeing them walk down the alley next to my house, attempted to run them down. Then they were in my yard, my roommate was just pulling up and asked them what was going on. One threatened her using very harsh language, the other woman said “They’re crazy! Get away from here!” She got in her car and drove off, calling 911 and waiting down the street until she saw cops arrive. At this point I came out and saw what I saw.
So both guys were arrested for assault, at least one guy also went to jail for making terroristic threats against my roommate. I don’t know if the woman, who admitted/bragged to officers that she was trying to run over those guys, will be charged with anything…it’s kind of one of those “is it legal to shoot a robber after he runs from your house” deals. She wasn’t handcuffed anyway, and with help managed to jump start her car and leave. I have no idea what happened to the driver of the other car (the one who clipped the woman’s car and dropped off the other guys), he wasn’t around at all. Oh, and one of the cops said that these guys were gang members, definite scumbags. My roommate is afraid of some kind of gang retaliation against her, or our house, though I don’t think this is very likely. Personally I was more bemused at the time than scared, and now am thinking that maybe I shouldn’t have gone out to my front steps at all.
(For the record, it’s not “my” house, my landlord and his wife own and live in the house and another guy and I rent rooms there. But you know what I mean.)
