Vallejo woman arrested for allegedly pepper-spraying Army vet over slow driving
Vallejo woman arrested after pepper-spray road rage incident
Police arrested Tiffany Bagby, 41, after a road rage incident in Vallejo in which an Army veteran was pepper-sprayed.
VALLEJO, Calif. - A woman seen on video pepper-spraying an Army veteran during a road rage incident in Vallejo has been arrested.
Tiffany Bagby, 41, was arrested on Thursday after allegedly leading police on a high-speed, four-mile chase. Jail records show her bail is set at $57,000.
Video from Monday morning’s incident shows a woman, believed to be Bagby, getting out of a Nissan Altima and approaching the victim’s work truck on Wilson Avenue along Vallejo’s waterfront.
Army veteran pepper-sprayed in Vallejo road-rage attack
A road-rage attack in Vallejo was caught on video, showing a woman pepper-spraying an Army veteran she believed was driving too slow.
Joe Vallely said the woman became angry because he was driving too slowly. He told police that while driving, the woman began making obscene gestures at him. Concerned she might be armed, he began to take video of the encounter on his phone.
"You scared? You should be scared b— ," the woman says in the video before spraying an orange chemical substance through the truck window.
The spray hit Vallely directly in the eyes.
"I immediately felt the pepper spray. She was like 2 feet away. She got me directly in the eyeballs," Vallely told KTVU on Tuesday. "It felt like someone was sandblasting my eyeballs with glass."
Speed tables installed along road
Dig deeper:
The city recently installed "speed tables" along Wilson Avenue following complaints about speeding drivers.
"There’s speed bumps on the road, so you have to drive slow anyway," Vallely said.
The speed limit on the street is typically 30 mph, but drivers must slow to 15 mph when crossing the speed tables. Vallely said the driver behind him became upset with his pace along the one-lane street.
"I noticed someone was tailgating me and flipping me off," he said. "And I’m driving the bucket truck slow because it’s big and old and heavy."
Vallely works for a company that provides internet service for Vallejo city departments.
Driver allegedly cut him off
Vallely said he continued driving until the street widened into two lanes near Hichborn Street. That’s when the woman allegedly drove around him and abruptly stopped.
Vallely told police after the woman sped in front of him, he was blocked, which prevented him from leaving.
"She slammed on her brakes. She forced me to slam on my brakes," he said. "There’s cars behind me that almost hit me. I almost hit the lady."
When the woman got out of her car, Vallely said he tried to avoid a confrontation by backing up.
"In the video, I said nothing. I wanted no confrontation," he said. "I wanted nothing to do with any interaction. I was just trying to avoid the situation at all costs."
Veteran says attack left him shaken
What they're saying:
After being sprayed, Vallely drove to a nearby liquor store to wash his face before he got his eyes flushed at Kaiser Permanente.
Vallely, a father of two, is an Army veteran with PTSD and also works as a process server.
"I see a lot of stuff, and I’m always on edge, but I never in a million years would think that I would have to be scared of simply driving and doing the speed limit," he said.
He has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help cover medical expenses.
Suspect posted her version online
The other side:
Following the incident, a woman believed to be Bagby posted her account online.
"I got out the car, and he began to record me, and yes, I pepper-sprayed him, and I walked off," she said. "That was no attack. Really wasn’t an intent to harm him. It was an intent to stop him from following me and antagonizing me on the road."
The arrest
In a post on social media, the Vallejo Police Department said once they identified the suspect, they tried to contact her at her home, but the woman "refused to cooperate or discuss the incident."
On Thursday, officers spotted the suspect driving at the intersection of Mini Drive and Stanford Drive. Officers tried to conduct a traffic stop, but said the woman refused to cooperate and fled in her vehicle. This led to a chase, which ended when she pulled over on the 100 block of Hilborn Avenue. Police said she initially refused to exit her vehicle, but was ultimately arrested.
Police said they found a large knife in the suspect's possession, concealed between the driver's seat and the center console. The suspect allegedly admitted to the pepper-spraying incident.
She was charged with multiple felonies, including felony evasion, felony battery, and false imprisonment. She was booked into Solano County Jail and her vehicle was towed from the scene, police said.
The Source: This report is based on information from the Vallejo Police Department, social media posts and an interview with the victim.
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