A Charlotte, North Carolina man died Wednesday after a suspect hit him with his car following a fight over a Walmart parking spot.
The Concord Police Department (CPD) responded to a call at around 6:20 p.m. to the Walmart on Thunder Road Northwest for reports of an injury from a hit-and-run. Emergency personnel pronounced Leon Phillip Fortner, 55, dead at the scene, according to a press release CPD posted to its Twitter account.
According to reports, Fortner got out of his car in the parking lot to confront another driver about the parking spot. That driver, later identified by police as Anthony Scott Amey of Charlotte, allegedly hit Fortner with his car and then fled the scene.
CPD said investigators quickly obtained a description of the suspect vehicle and of Amey. Police found Amey at his home in north Charlotte. He was arrested and charged with a hit-and-run, which is a felony. Amey was being held on a $50,000 secured bond. He is expected to appear in court Friday. CPD said that the incident is under investigation.
Reports show that road rage incidents are on the rise. A study by Everytown Research & Policy found that eight out of 10 drivers experienced aggressive behavior from another person while driving in 2021.
Most of deadly road rage incidents involved a gun. Everytown Research & Policy found that road rage injuries and deaths have increased yearly since 2018. The number of harmful road rage incidents nearly doubled from 2020 to 2021 over 2016 to 2021.
Healthline reported that the COVID-19 pandemic could be partially to blame for the increased aggression on the road. Since the pandemic brought extra stressors to people's lives, they may exude anger on the road.
Although most road rage injuries and deaths occur because of a shooting, incidents are determined as road rage any time an individual uses their vehicle or another object to threaten or harm a victim. Other examples of road rage include hitting the victim with the car, throwing items from the car at the victim or yelling.
William Van Tassel, manager of the American Automobile Association driver training programs, told Healthline that road rage is contagious. If a victim responds to a road rage incident with anger, it can worsen the problem.
Other road rage incidents have proved fatal in North Carolina this year as well. Newsweek reported a truck driver fatally shot Stephen Addison on his motorcycle in January.
Charlotte city bus driver Ethan Rivera was killed while he was driving his bus in February, according to ABC News. Rivera was stopped at a red light when he was shot. In May, NBC News reported that two North Carolina men exchanged gunfire while in a fit of road rage.
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