iStock(PIONEER, Calif.) — Authorities in California are searching for a suspect who punched a 73-year-old man in the face during a road rage incident.
The man told sheriff’s deputies that he was driving on Highway 88 when he became involved in a dispute with a driver in a Honda sedan, according to a news release from the Amador County Sheriff’s Office.
Both vehicles then pulled into the parking lot of the Dollar General on Meadow Vista Drive in the city of Pioneer, about 60 miles east of Sacramento, when the victim approached the suspect’s car and “banged on the driver’s side window with closed fists,” authorities said.
The suspect then exited the car and punched the victim twice in the face, authorities said. Investigators noted that he had “apparent injuries to his face,” but the man declined medical treatment, according to the release.
It is unclear how the altercation began, authorities said. The suspect left before authorities arrived on the scene and deputies did not locate his car in the area.
Authorities described the suspect as a white man in his mid-twenties.
The victim, Neil Starr, told CBS Sacramento station KOVR-TV that the suspect grabbed him by the shirt and hit him in the eye.
“I could feel everything just split apart,” Starr said.
An image Starr provided to the station showed blood dripping down his face from his nose.
“I can take a punch, but let’s not try it again,” he said.
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