Refusing to control his road rage, an unhinged man followed a female driver to a parking lot to confront her. When he tried to force his way into her vehicle, he quickly realized the horrifying mistake he made.
North Carolina police are investigating a violent road rage incident that culminated in the death of one of the individuals involved. Authorities have reviewed surveillance footage that they say undeniably exonerates the killer, and that no charges will be filed. Likewise, citizens are voicing their agreement with the decision.
Raleigh officials say that 49-year-old Steven McLamb was on a violent tare when he followed a female driver to the Food Lion parking lot in the Greystone Village Shopping Center just after 5 p.m. The unnamed woman had pulled into a parking spot when McLamb approached her car to confront her in a bout of road rage.
According to video footage and several eye-witnesses, McLamb exited his vehicle, walked over to the woman’s car, and began forcefully pulling at the door handle, WTVD reports. Just then, his intended victim brandished her trusty firearm.
Without hesitation, the woman unloaded her firearm in the direction of her attacker, mortally wounding him. McLamb later died from his injuries in a hospital, Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman confirmed.
“Mr. McLamb was the aggressor,” Freeman said. “He followed the other individual into the parking lot and upon getting out of his car — approaching her car and attempting to get into her car — she, acting in self-defense, shot and killed him.”
Although authorities didn’t say what led up to the incident, they confirmed that McLamb was the aggressor. Officials stated that the woman acted in self-defense out of fear for her life, which would justify using lethal force.
“Mr. McLamb was the aggressor,” Freeman told the station. “He followed the other individual into the parking lot and upon getting out of his car — approaching her car and attempting to get into her car — she, acting in self-defense, shot and killed him.”
While the woman who killed McLamb was carrying her firearm legally and has no criminal history, her victim’s past is another story. McLamb has a record with police, having been arrested and charged with multiple crimes including assault on a female and assault by strangulation.
“I think what’s really important here for people to understand is that provision in our law is not an invitation to vigilante justice, but it does allow when someone has a responsible fear for imminent death or bodily injury that you’re allowed to protect yourself,” Freeman concluded.
Defense Attorney Lee Turner agreed with the police’s decision not to charge the woman and placed the blame on McLamb, claiming that he “contributed to what occurred to him that day by his own actions,” WRAL reports.
“Basically saying your home, your automobile, your workplace are considered to be an individual’s castle and you have a right to defend yourself inside those locations,” Turner said.
Officials have pointed to North Carolina’s castle doctrine, which protects individuals defending themselves from imminent threat of serious bodily harm.
“The law presumes she was afraid for her life because this person was trying to unlawfully enter her ‘castle,’ her car,” said Daniel Meier, a defense attorney.
Fortunately, the woman escaped uninjured. She successfully defended herself from a notoriously violent road rager, possibly preventing herself from becoming his next victim.
McLamb never expected that one of his victims would be able to fight back. Instead, he was planning on being able to overpower her with brute strength, as he demonstrated by trying to force his way into her car. Luckily, she wasn’t as helpless as had hoped.
