Military Man Maced During Tinley Park Road Rage Confrontation

A military man on leave in Tinley Park was pepper-sprayed during a road rage confrontation, police said.

Officers sent to the scene of the crime near the intersection of 171st Street and Harlem Avenue found the 27-year-old and noticed he was “visibly upset and had his eyes closed,” police said.

The man told officers “he had a traffic altercation with an unknown subject,” police said.

He explained the “incident started when he was cut off by a silver Chevy Cruze” and “gave the other driver a hand gesture.”

The man recalled that the “other vehicle was able to get behind him in traffic” but was “unclear how he got in front of the vehicle that had cut him off earlier,” police said.

He then told how the “silver Chevy pulled next to him at the red light” so “he rolled down his window (of his Mini Cooper) and had a verbal argument with the other driver,” which was about the time the “other driver pulled out a can of pepper spray and sprayed him from the offending vehicle’s passenger window into his open driver’s window,” police said. The pepper-sprayer then drove off.

The Maced man reportedly told police the other driver had short hair or a shaved head and looked to be about 20 years old.

A Tinley Park police officer brought the man’s wife over so she could drive him away. He reportedly refused an ambulance trip to the hospital.

The man told officers “he was an active member of the military and that he would be unable to sign complaints due to being in Tinley Park temporarily on leave.”

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