A Texas man has allegedly been shooting female drivers near his home because of a “dim view of women” and a belief that female drivers are “incompetent, police said.
The man, 29-year-old Nicholas D’Agostino, was arrested Thursday for allegedly shooting a female driver in the arm. Just three days earlier, he had been released on bond for an alleged July shooting of another woman in the arm while she was driving by a gas station near his house. He has admitted to five separate road rage incidents over the past few months, court filings show.
After the July arrest, he had told authorities that he had shot the woman in July out of “self-defense” because she had “swerved twice into his lane,” according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
The woman, though, told investigators she was simply driving to the car wash when she heard a loud noise, saw her window crack, and felt a searing pain in her arm and chest. The bullet had torn through her arm and pierced her chest, reaching just short of her heart.
Court documents also said surveillance video showed a green Ford Explorer drive by the woman’s car with a window open, followed by a quick movement and a flash, according to BuzzFeed News.
The Thursday arrest was in connection to a March incident just a few miles away in Katy, Texas. The woman told authorities she was leaving a Shell gas station when she heard a noise and felt an intense pain in her right arm. She looked around and saw a man “looking at her as he drove by,” apparently “looking to see if he had hit her.” Again, D’Agostino told authorities that he was acting in self-defense, making the argument that the woman had intentionally “swerved at him” and that he fired the gun “to stop what he perceived as a threat.”
A Harris County sheriff’s detective told a judge Thursday that D’Angelo had ranted on Facebook about female drivers and made the argument that “their sole purpose in life is to give birth to male children.”
Investigators say in court documents that Facebook posts indicate he was “randomly” targeting women, an assertion D’Angelo’s attorney contests. D’Angelo’s attorney told BuzzFeed News there is “absolutely no evidence that he hates women” and that his client has mental health issues and is getting help.
Authorities believe he attempted to shoot another woman in Katy in another incident as well, but missed. He is now facing two felony charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
