VANCOUVER, Wash. — A man is in custody after firing a shotgun into a family's occupied car during a road rage incident over the weekend, according to the Vancouver Police Department.
Police said the episode started just before 8 p.m. on Sunday night. The two drivers began feuding at Interstate 5 and 78th Street in Vancouver. Both were heading back to their homes, which VPD said happened to be "only a block away" from one another.
One driver, identified as 53-year-old Arik Odegard, fired a single shotgun slug through the windshield of a Volvo SUV, occupied by a mom and her two sons. VPD said the slug traveled through the back of an unoccupied car seat.
Fortunately, Vancouver police said that there were no injuries other than hearing loss for the victims.
The victim called 911 to report the shooting, as did Odegard. In a probable cause affidavit filed in court, the arresting officer got differing accounts from the two parties as to how the incident started. The victim said that Odegard had been tailgating her before he eventually got around her and suddenly slammed on the brakes. Odegard claimed that the woman was in another lane and had been swerving at him.
"I thought they were going to follow me home and run me down," the affidavit reports Odegard as saying. "They made evasive moves ... they had a child in the car ... I thought they were going to run me over."
The victim told police that she recognized Odegard as her neighbor during the road rage encounter due to a bumper sticker on his GMC Yukon. She said she was still in her SUV when she followed him over to his house so she could record his license plate.
Odegard, who said he'd been returning from a hunting trip, got out of his vehicle with a handgun in one hand and a shotgun in the other. He told police that he tossed the handgun back in his SUV, loaded the shotgun with a slug and pulled the hammer back when his "finger slipped" and he shot into the victim's car.
According to the affidavit, Odegard claimed that the victim had been driving directly at him, but he admitted to an officer that he hadn't heard the Volvo's motor revving or the tires spinning.
Other neighbors who spoke with police said they heard the gunshot and then heard yelling. One witness reported hearing the victim cry something to the effect of, "You shot through my windshield, I have gunpowder in my mouth and my child's!" Odegard responded with, "Well, I'm sorry!"
Both parties called police, and Odegard told dispatch that his shotgun blast was an accidental discharge. After arriving, officers took Odegard into custody. He was booked on three counts of first-degree assault with a firearm.
Court documents show that Odegard's bail was set at $500,000, and he did not qualify for a court-appointed attorney. He was ordered to surrender all firearms as a condition of any potential release, barred from any contact with the victim or her family, and required to submit to GPS monitoring.
Odegard is scheduled to appear again in court on Nov. 4.
