A man threatened a woman with a machete in a traffic incident between Lyndhurst and Beachwood

BEACHWOOD, Ohio – A traffic accident on Richmond Road involved a man threatening a woman by holding a machete out the window of his car.

At 11:50 a.m. on May 3, a woman described in the police report as approximately 30 years old reported the threat, which occurred as the two drivers were stopped at the traffic light at Richmond and Cedar streets.

The woman told police she was driving south on Richmond Road in Lyndhurst at the 35 mph speed limit when a Hyundai Elantra began to pass her. The angry Hyundai driver was unable to pass her vehicle immediately because another car was blocking the other southbound lane.

The man eventually passed the woman’s car, but when the woman and man stopped next to each other at the traffic light, the man yelled that she was driving “too slow.”

When the woman saw the man’s Arizona license plate, she yelled in response that he “needed to get back to Arizona with this crazy drive.”

The man then used racial slurs as he again told the woman she couldn’t drive. He then swung a machete out the driver’s side window and threatened to “cut her into pieces.”

The woman, who had her two small children in the car, told the man that she was calling the police and called 911. The man then ran a red light, almost collided with another car and drove away Accident location. The woman managed to take a photo of the man’s car and license plate.

The 911 call was initially referred to Lyndhurst police, but it was discovered that the threat had actually been made in Beachwood.

Beachwood police identified the man as a resident of Cleveland Heights. The man did not respond to a call to police, but an automated license plate reader was found to show him driving on Richmond Road between 5 and 5:15 a.m. most days.

At 5:15 a.m. on the morning of May 4, an officer spotted the man’s car on Richmond Road. A traffic stop was carried out.

The man apologized to the officer for not calling back and said he was asleep when the message was delivered.

He said the incident with the woman was a “he said, she said” thing and denied having a gun. However, when his car was searched, a machete with a 14-inch blade was found in the trunk.

The man said he showed the machete because the woman pointed a gun at him. When asked, the woman later told police that she did not own a weapon.

The police were able to observe the incident because it was recorded on a traffic camera.

The 23-year-old man said he didn’t know the machete was in his trunk and that he used it to cut watermelons while he was at work.

The police charged the man with dangerous threats.

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