DANVILLE — Police charged a motorist with threatening another driver with a handgun in an apparent road rage incident on Main Street at 6:20 a.m. yesterday.
The incident ended a short time later when Danville resident Dennis Bieniecki, 24, of 66 Diamond Drive was taken into custody by police. He was charged with a class B felony, police Chief Wade Parsons said.
The victim told police he was driving his silver Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck on Main Street, about a mile from the center of town, when a green Jeep Cherokee came out from a side street and cut in front of him.
The victim hit his brakes and threw his hands in the air, as if to say to the offending driver, "What are you doing?" he told police.
The Jeep's driver slowed down and swerved, the pickup truck trailing closely behind, police said. It appeared to the victim that Bieniecki was taunting him, police said.
Bieniecki allegedly reached out his open side window and held out an ammunition clip, the dark casing and gold bullets visible to the victim, police said.
Bieniecki hauled the clip inside the window, raised a handgun with his right hand and slapped the clip in it, all in view of the trailing driver, the victim told police.
As chance would have it, a police cruiser happened upon the vehicles. The victim yelled out to Sgt. Ryan Furman what had happened.
Furman stopped Bieniecki's vehicle a short distance away on Colby Road. Furman found a .40-caliber handgun and loaded clip on Bieniecki's passenger seat, police said.
"The timing was pretty good," Parsons said.
Bieniecki was taken into custody without any problems and charged with criminal threatening with a handgun. He was arraigned in Plaistow District Court and released on $5,000 personal recognizance bail, police said.
He is scheduled for a probable cause hearing at 8 a.m. June 2 in Plaistow District Court.
Felony offenses are typically forwarded to the Rockingham County attorney's office for possible grand jury indictment.
Parsons said the victim in the incident was pretty rattled. He told the chief he moved to New Hampshire four years ago and never expected anything like this to happen.
