Road rage suspect arrested for assault after shoving 65-year-old man to the ground
BELFAIR, Wash. - A 65-year-old man is recovering after he was shoved to the ground by another driver on Friday along State Route 300.
"It’s been two days," said Tom Crosswhite. "The color is going away now. It’s calming down."
Crosswhite is talking about the large black and blue mark on his left arm.
"It’s tender if I touch it," he said.
The injury is a result of what he and his family are calling an unprovoked attack following an apparent road rage incident.
"I was leaving my dad's," he said. " I pulled out of the private road, and he was right on top of me."
The incident, according to Crosswhite, started around 11:45 a.m. after leaving his elderly father’s home on State Route 300.
"I slowed down in the school zone," he said. "I eventually pulled over."
According to video obtained by FOX 13, a driver in a white SUV had a verbal confrontation with Crosswhite. Video shows him walking away and then turning back around before shoving Crosswhite to the ground.
"I got out of my car to get his information," said Crosswhite. "He pushed me and down I went onto the pavement on the white line. It took me a minute to straighten up and get up."
Kole Crosson was the person who recorded the assault.
"I was sitting in my truck on my lunch break," he said. "I heard honking and saw the two cars pull over."
Crosson recalls how the driver of the white SUV was laying into his horn before getting out and confronting the elderly man.
"Before I started recording, he grabbed the man’s glasses and threw them on the ground."
"I couldn’t believe what I was seeing," said Crosson. "That was clearly road rage and then to push an older person down."
After Crosswhite is seen falling to the ground, his accused attacker gets back in his SUV and drives off.
"It is so embarrassing to know someone would do that to me in my hometown," said Crosswhite. "I didn’t do anything wrong."
Crosswhite and his family tell FOX 13 they filed an incident report with Washington State Patrol.
"That man just went too far," said Tom’s wife Barbara. "If he has a lot of anger and needs to address that."
On Sunday, the man at the center of the attack took to Facebook with his side of the story. That same day, Casey Parkhurst was booked into jail for investigation of assault in the 4th-degree.
Parkhurst wrote the following on Facebook:
"Yep, that’s me. My information is already with Mason County. It’s a free country, so y’all can think whatever you want, but here’s the rest of the story:
The old dude in the video just about caused an accident on the road, I almost T-boned him because he drove out into the road without looking.
Then I honked and flipped him off. Then he waggled his finger at me and brake-checked me further on down the road in the school zone.
I was NOT pissed off because he was driving too slow, I was pissed off because he almost caused 2 collisions with my [expletive] family in the car.
I honked and flipped him off again and passed in the middle lane, got off at the hardware store exit. He passed me waving a paper a pencil at me and pulled over in the same area.
I pulled off behind him when he pulled over, got out and let him have it. Yelled in his face, called him an [expletive] etc. The entire time he had a [expletive] eating grin on his face, and was acting all weird. Drunk as a skunk (or off his meds/pill popping, don’t know, don’t care).
I ripped his sunglasses off his face and threw them in the ditch, walked back to my car.
He got out of the car and approached mine, I ain't letting anybody get near my car with my wife and baby in it.
He stumbled up to me, still smirking and me and shaking his head. I got in his face. I shoved him, he fell on his butt because he’s drunk or high or whatever. Figured that was lesson enough, so I drove off.
Long story short, this is story of two [expletives], one who almost caused an accident (twice), and another that lost his temper and shoved him. That’s it. Some real school yard [expletive]. I am sorry for breaking his sunglasses, and I shouldn’t have shoved him, but apologies don’t mean diddly. The police have my info, and if this fella wants to press charges, well that’s his decision to make, I’ll abide by anything the court would say, that’s how the law works. If he wants to talk to me in person or on the phone/whatever, he or his family can get in touch and we can bury the hatchet…"
The man went on to write pay for any damage he caused.
Sunday night, troopers arrested Parkhurst and booked him into the Mason County jail. He was charged with Assault in the 4th Degree.
When questioned, Parkhurst admitted what he did was wrong and told troopers, "I'm glad I only pushed him and didn't punch him in the f****** throat."
In the meantime, Tom Crosswhite just wants to forget the whole incident happened.
"I'm trying not to think about it," he said. "Life's too short."
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