Dual 911 calls made after gunfire in road rage incident

He says she wasn't driving correctly, traveling around 20 mph on a busy road and "playin' the brakes."

She says he was swerving like he was trying to hit her vehicle with his pickup.

At the stoplight at Crocker and Metro Parkway in Harrison Township, both vehicles stopped side by side and a confrontation unfolded that would leave both drivers facing criminal charges.

The man later told a 911 operator that he was mad and the woman was yelling at him and he went to throw his Slurpee at her.

And the woman separately told another 911 operator that she was frightened and fired a shot at the man's truck.

"I'm a licensed CPL holder so I shot at him because I didn't know what the hell he was doin'," the female driver told her 911 operator.

In a simultaneous call, the male driver told his 911 operator: "Damn, that was so close to shootin' me. That's unreal."

Now, India Marchea McDougal, 36, of Harrison Township is in the Macomb County Jail on a $750,000 bond on the charges of assault with intent to murder, a felony firearms offense and possession of a controlled substance, which the sheriff's office said was narcotic pills.

The other driver, a 40-year-old Warren man, faces several misdemeanor charges, but his name has not been released because he has not been arraigned. Lt. John Michalke said charges for the man that were requested with the county prosecutor's office are driving while license suspended and throwing a missile.

Attorney James Galen, who is representing McDougal, said she is a single mother of two children, one of whom was in her vehicle at the time of the incident Tuesday. He said she just finished multiple months of cancer treatment and was "terrified of the man, who threatened to kill her and hurt her. She was not the aggressor and was only looking to diffuse the situation and protect her and her minor son who was in the vehicle with her."

Galen said McDougal wasn't sure if the man, who she said was using profanity, threatening harm to her and threw a drink through her window, was going for a gun or something else and she discharged one shot. He said that he believes the charges are "outrageous" and her bond is too high. Galen said McDougal "had multiple bullets in her weapon. If she wanted to kill him, she could have emptied her gun and killed him."

It was the second road-rage incident involving gunfire this week in metro Detroit.

On Monday, a 42-year-old man was shot and killed in a Home Depot parking lot on Detroit’s west side after a fender bender, police said. There was an altercation, both drivers pulled out of the parking lot, and the shooter drove up to the passenger side of the victim’s vehicle and fired shots into it, killing the other driver, Detroit police said. They said the shooter fled the scene.

Also this week, Tatiana Duva-Rodriguez, 46, of Clarkston — a concealed pistol license holder — was charged in an incident last week in which she fired at a suspected shoplifter and his getaway driver who were fleeing a Home Depot store in Auburn Hills, flattening one of the vehicle’s tires. She is charged with misdemeanor reckless use, handling or discharging of a firearm.

Guns have been a topic of the state Legislature this week, where a Senate committee approved legislation Tuesday to allow concealed pistol license holders to carry in schools and other areas that are now off limits to them under state law. It would prevent, in those same areas, the “open carry” practiced by gun rights enthusiasts.

In Tuesday's incident in Harrison Township, the Macomb County Sheriff's Office said that about 5:45 p.m., a 911 caller said he was driving in the area of Reimold and Crocker — near a middle school and elementary school — when he "exchanged words" with McDougal, who was driving a Lexus.

Both drivers went to the light on Crocker at Metro Parkway when the man said he stopped alongside the woman's SUV to confront her about her driving. He said he got out of his Chevrolet pickup but remained on the driver's side, the sheriff's office said.

He told deputies a verbal argument escalated and he got back into his truck. He said he reached over, unrolled the passenger-side window and threw a soft drink at her SUV. She fired her gun and both called 911, according to the sheriff's office.

Deputies interviewed McDougal, whose version was consistent with the other driver except that she told them that the man got out at the red light, walked around his truck and approached her SUV. As he neared her SUV, he had a Styrofoam cup in his hand and he threw liquid in her face. She states that she was “scared for her life” so she drew her handgun and fired a single shot, the sheriff's office said in a release.

Authorities said there was a bullet hole through the passenger door of the man's truck and the window glass was shattered. They recovered the bullet from the armrest of his truck, the sheriff's office said.

Both drivers told 911 that they were not hurt.

Deputies found a Kel-Tec 9 mm Luger in the map pocket on the driver's side door of McDougal's RX330. McDougal was arrested, Michalke said, and she was taken to a local hospital for a blood draw via a search warrant to test her for drugs or alcohol. The results are pending, he said.

Michalke said authorities considered both versions of the story and reviewed video of the intersection from a traffic camera there at the county's communications center. The charges then were filed.

The video shows two cars pulling up to the intersection and the driver of a truck getting out and standing by the driver's side of the truck. The person gets back into the truck and then the other driver opens their driver's side door. Both vehicles stay at the light, with traffic on Metro continuing to travel, and both drove off in different directions.

The man told his 911 operator that he was upset -- later saying it was a Lexus that "didn't know how to freakin' drive," that the female driver couldn't hear what he was saying and that he doesn't have power windows. He told the operator that he had a bullet hole in his vehicle and that he was going to follow the woman, but he had to pick up his kid in 45 minutes.

Galen said McDougal called 911, stopped and cooperated with authorities. He said his clinet has no prior criminal history, an indication "that she is a peaceful and law-abiding citizen." She is to return to court Oct. 26.

Contact Christina Hall: chall99@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter.