\u201cYou didn\u2019t have, honestly, two adults in the room with these two individuals,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201c(Both made) bad decision, and we went ahead and charged the individual who did the shooting. The grand jury disagreed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mitchell explained that video she\u2019s seen of the incident showed back and forth between the two drivers, Jackson and 29-year-old Steven Bevan, when turning left onto a street.<\/p>\n
She added that Bevan was driving aggressively to get in front of Jackson\u2019s car before breaking checking him, causing him to stop. The county attorney said that was when Bevan allegedly got out of his car and walked towards Jackson\u2019s car screaming. Jackson proceeded to open his door, Bevan then touched the door, which is when Jackson reportedly shot him.<\/p>\n
Bevan was transported to the hospital with life-threatening injuries and later pronounced dead.<\/p>\n
There were children in both vehicles at the time of the shooting, and Bevan\u2019s son even took one of the videos that Mitchell watched of the incident.<\/p>\n
What is the law behind the Tempe road rage shooter not being indicted?<\/p>\n
According to Mitchell, the law states that if a reasonable person believes the use of deadly force is immediately necessary to protect themselves or someone else against another person\u2019s deadly force, then they\u2019re justified in doing that under the law.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s also very difficult from a prosecution standpoint because what the law also says is if the defendant raises a claim of self-defense, then the prosecution has to disprove that beyond a reasonable doubt. And so that\u2019s a very high burden,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cBut then we look at a grand jury, all they\u2019re there to do is to see if there\u2019s probably cause, much lower standard. And the grand jury unanimously said not to indict here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mitchell said that the shooting, even though Jackson was not indicted, is still life-changing behavior\u00a0 \u2014 citing a case from the previous week where a different road rage shooter in south Phoenix was sentenced to life in prison<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd even if we look at this case and nothing else happens criminally with it, this person\u2019s still in for a very long lawsuit for a lot money,\u201d Mitchell said regarding the possibility of a civil lawsuit.<\/p>\n The county attorney said that far too often her office is seeing cases of people shooting or pointing a gun at someone during a road rage incident. Mitchell reminded Arizonans that even pointing a gun at someone and not shooting is a crime.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s aggravated assault and it comes with a mandatory prison sentence of five to 15 years,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n Mitchell emphasized that there are other options besides shooting someone when a road rage incident occurs.<\/p>\n \u201cI get the fear of somebody very angry coming up to my car, but you\u2019re in your car. You can lock the door, you can drive away, there are a lot of other options, but what we have now is a dead dad,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cIf you get into a situation like that the best thing you can do is pull over, pull into a public spot, do not engage (because) you never know who\u2019s going to have a gun (and) shoot. It\u2019s not worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n We want to hear from you.<\/p>\n Have a story idea or tip? Pass it along to the KTAR News team here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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