Images from the California Highway Patrol (CHP) show police arresting Nathaniel Walter Radimak, suspected of committing multiple assaults while driving a Tesla.
The 36-year-old driver of a Tesla caught on dashcam video threatening motorists and damaging cars across Southern California has been charged in connection with the road-rage attacks, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Nathaniel Radimak has pleaded not guilty to charges of assault using force likely to produce great bodily injury, criminal threats, vandalism, and elder abuse, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement Tuesday that the victims were terrified.
“This reign of terror ends today,” he said. “Motorists in Los Angeles shouldn’t have to live in fear of being attacked while simply driving on the freeway.”
Radimak, 36, was arrested Sunday and will remain jailed pending his trial after a judge agreed with prosecutors he’s a flight risk and a danger to the public. He has a criminal history dating nearly 20 years and spanning several states, officials said.
In Southern California, he’s accused of attacks on motorists dating to January 2020, prosecutors said.
On Jan. 11 of this year, he allegedly used a pipe to hit two cars, one on an LA-area freeway and the other after following a couple from a shopping mall in Pasadena, prosecutors said.
More Law&Crime Coverage: 78-Year-Old Grandma Accused of Helping Grandson Cover Up Murder: Police
In November, Radimak allegedly threatened two women and broke one of their car’s headlights. In June he allegedly threatened a 74-year-old woman outside a doctor’s office in Glendale, prosecutors said. Glendale is about 7 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.
He had already been facing drug possession and battery charges from an attack in Hollywood in January 2020 when officials said they found steroids and more than $30,000 in his car, officials said.