INDIANAPOLIS — The victim of a road rage attack tells 13News that another man got out of his car and came at him with an ax.
Chet Montgomery has cuts on his wrist, palm, thigh and chin. The Speedway man needed stitches for all those cuts after a tussle with another driver swinging an ax on March 11 about 2:45 p.m.
Montgomery was driving south on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. when he said another car pulled into his lane at 21st Street, forcing Montgomery into the median. He says that car then slowed way down in front of him, so he drove around but did not yell or gesture or honk.
Montgomery was stopped by a red light at 16th Street.
"Now I'm thinking the incident is over, as far as I'm concerned,” Montgomery said. “But I looked in my rearview mirror and I see this guy's taking something out of his vehicle. So, I'm assuming he's going to take whatever it is and smash my window."
Montgomery said he got out of his car to stop the man, who was later identified as Jimmy Calhoun. Court records say a bystander shot video of the two fighting over the ax.
Montgomery said he was able to wrestle the ax away from Calhoun, and bystanders separated the two after they fell to the ground. Calhoun allegedly wanted his ax back.
“I refused to give him that ax back,” Montgomery said. “I already took a couple whacks already. So, I took the ax and placed it in the trunk of my car. Of course, the police, when they finally came, retrieved the ax from my trunk."
The bystander video allegedly shows Calhoun taking off before police arrived. But the video captured the license plate and a sign with a phone number on Calhoun’s car that connected him to a handyman service.
"You have to be careful out here in these streets driving,” Montgomery said. “There's a lot of crazies out there that do things like what happened to me on the 11th. So just be careful."
Calhoun is charged with battery and intimidation. Calhoun is also awaiting trial on another incident on Aug. 22. He is charged with battery, disorderly conduct and criminal mischief in that case. Calhoun was just released from home detention in that case on Feb. 26.