Crime & Safety

Peabody Man Arrested After Road Rage Incident

By Tony Schinella

Brookline Police arrested Jacob Smoller, 28, of Peabody, at 2:48 p.m. on April 14, and charged with malicious damage, assault by means of a dangerous weapon, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

Around 11 a.m. on the day in question, police were called to an accident on Washington Street where “one of the parties had exited his vehicle and was attacking the other driver with a crowbar,” according to a report.

Dispatch later reported that the man with the crowbar fled the scene in a gold Toyota down South Huntington. One officer met with the victim and a witness at the scene while other officers looked for the Toyota.

The driver told police he was traveling on Washington Street in the center lane when the Toyota reportedly “pulled into his lane causing him to stop and blocking his lane.” The man in the Toyota got out of his car, approached the driver’s side door of the victim’s car, and allegedly “was yelling at him using a lot of profanities and complaining about his driving ‘like an a--hole.’”

The man walked away and the victim got out to take a picture of the license plate when the man in the Toyota allegedly grabbed a crowbar, came at the man, and began striking the window of the other vehicle, shattering the windshield. The man then took off, according to the report.

A witness walking on the sidewalk shared a similar account with police, saying the man was “enraged and out of control,” while dropping F-bombs. The man was described as white, in his late 20s, about 6-feet tall, with scruffy facial hair.

Using a partial plate number, dispatch was able to track down the vehicle to Smoller at an address in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston. A detective was sent to the address but couldn’t locate him or the vehicle. He left a note at the apartment to contact police. A sergeant was able to locate phone numbers to reach Smoller and his parents but there were no answers at the numbers.

About three hours later, Smoller met with police and after discussing the incident, was arrested and charged.


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