California Tesla driver charged for road rage attacks caught on camera

LOS ANGELES - The Tesla driver allegedly caught on camera in  a road rage incident in Glendale was charged Tuesday for at least three attacks on Los Angeles County drivers going back to June 2022, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office announced.

The California Highway Patrol arrested Nathaniel Walter Radimak of Los Angeles on Sunday.

The CHP said Radimak is the pipe-wielding man who was seen on video in the Jan. 11 incident that occurred while he was driving his black Model X Tesla on the southbound lanes of Highway 2 near York Boulevard in Glendale.

That morning, the driver of a Chevrolet pickup truck observed a road rage incident involving the black Tesla and began recording with his cellphone.

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A few minutes later, the driver of the Tesla attempted to merge into the left lane and bumped into the Chevrolet, hitting the front passenger side. Both cars continued driving and a few seconds later, the Tesla driver stopped in the middle of the freeway, got out of his car with a "pole-like object" and hit the Chevrolet's door and window multiple times.

The Tesla driver then walked back to his car and drove away.

Radimak was charged Tuesday for that Jan. 11 attack as well as two others dating back to June 2022. In one instance on Nov. 9, 2022, Radimak is accused of threatening to attack a woman at an Atwater Village storage facility. Later that day he allegedly got out of his car and threatened another woman on the freeway and broke one of her headlights.

In June 2022, Radimak is also accused of threatening to assault a 74-year-old woman outside a Glendale doctor's office.

On Tuesday Radimak was charged with 12 counts, including assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, criminal threats, vandalism and elder abuse.

"The victims in this case were reasonably terrified by what they experienced, but this reign of terror ends today," Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said. "Motorists in Los Angeles shouldn’t have to live in fear of being attacked while simply driving on the freeway."

Radimak also has a pending case in another road rage case from 2020, according to the DA's office, in which he allegedly attacked another driver in Hollywood.

The DA's office called Radimak a "flight risk and a danger to the community and base this decision on his lengthy criminal history which spans nearly two decades and crosses multiple states and jurisdictions," but did not elaborate further. 

Radimak was in court Tuesday and pleaded not guilty to the charges. He'll be back in court on Feb. 14.