A woman who fatally shot a man on a shoulder of Interstate 5 during a road-rage incident last month will not be charged, the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office said Friday.
The 23-year-old woman acted in self defense, prosecutors said. The News Tribune has chosen not to publish her name because she was never arrested or charged with a crime.
Witnesses said the man, 60-year-old Bruce W. Jones, was upset with how the woman was driving her motorcycle Feb. 8 on the southbound freeway near the King-Pierce County line in Milton. He tried to box the woman in with his 2016 GMC Terrain, then got out of his vehicle and “aggressively approached her on the shoulder of Interstate 5,” the Prosecutor’s Office said in a news release.
The release gave this account:
Jones started a fight with the woman and at some point she head-butted him. Jones then slammed the woman’s head into a jersey barrier and took her to the ground.
As Jones tried to climb on top of her, she shot him in the chest with a handgun. He died at the scene.
The motorcyclist, who had a concealed pistol license, called 911 and waited for investigators.
She was detained and then released while prosecutors made a charging decision.
Jones’ wife was a passenger in the GMC and was not injured.
“This is another reminder to everyone to keep a cool head on our roads,” Prosecutor Mark Lindquist said. “Nothing good is going to come from physically confronting another driver.”
The investigation of the shooting caused significant backups on the freeway, as police closed two lanes of I-5 for about four hours.
Alexis Krell: 253-597-8268, @amkrell
This story was originally published March 16, 2018 4:53 PM.