Two arrested after 'road rage' incidents in Martin County

MARTIN COUNTY − Following a number of reported 'road rage' incidents and arrests, Martin County Sheriff William Snyder this week urged people to exercise tolerance and said reaching for a firearm or making hand gestures “is just an invitation for violence.”

Port St. Lucie residents Kyle Kutner, 29, and Jennifer Patnaude, 36, each were arrested Aug. 18 on a felony charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without the intent to kill, following separate incidents hours apart, affidavits state.

“What we're seeing here in Martin County, I think, is just a microcosm of what we're seeing across the United States, and that is road rage,” Snyder said Thursday. “We just see it way too frequently.”

Deputies were sent to the first incident about 2 p.m. Aug. 18. A man told investigators he was in a vehicle with three others, and first encountered Kutner as they turned onto Southeast Federal Highway in Tequesta. Kutner’s vehicle, he said, nearly collided with them.

As they traveled north, “both vehicles sped up, slowed down and changed lanes multiple times,” an affidavit states. Kutner is accused of pointing a gun twice at the man and his family.

Kutner said he kept trying to pass “when the driver kept trying to cut in front of him and block him,” an affidavit states.

Investigators found a .25-caliber handgun on the floorboard of Kutner’s vehicle.

“The antidote to all this is a little bit of tolerance. If somebody's cut you off, let it go,” Snyder said. “If you cut somebody off and now they're brandishing a firearm, back off. Get out of the way and call 911, we're pretty good at finding drivers that do this.”

Roughly four hours later, deputies went to the Sonic restaurant on Northwest Federal Highway in Jensen Beach where a man said four motorcycles sped by him as he pulled onto the main roadway in the plaza.

The man said he pulled in the Sonic and a man on a motorcycle started yelling. Eventually, he said, a woman got off her motorcycle and pointed a handgun at him.

The woman, later identified as Patnaude, said she saw the man reaching around in his vehicle and thought he might shoot.

“(She) said she reacted in self defense by pulling her handgun and pointing it at (the man),” an arrest affidavit states.

She said she did not see the man with a gun.

“This is not so much a law enforcement problem and challenge as it is a societal problem,” Snyder said. “We have to as good neighbors chill just a bit and stop trying to John Wayne yourself through every incident that occurs in traffic.”

Meanwhile, on Tuesday in Port St. Lucie, a 63-year-old man accused of pointing a firearm in an apparent road rage incident also was jailed. Paul Slane, of Port St. Lucie, was arrested on charges including two counts each of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without the intent to kill and battery, and a single count of robbery with a firearm, Port St. Lucie Police reported.

Snyder said his agency has had 64 road rage calls so far this year, as compared to 63 in 2023.

Snyder said those who engage in such behavior “do the Second Amendment supporters no good deed by pointing your gun at somebody in a display of anger.”

“It diminishes society's tolerance for the Second Amendment or the right to bear arms,” he said.

Careful consideration should be exercised regarding firearms.

“If you stop and think about it for a minute, you're in a traffic altercation, and you produce a firearm. What is your intention, to frighten the person? What if that person has a gun and fires at you?” Snyder said. “The person who shoots at you because you pointed a gun would probably ... be justifiable. So you're just asking for it if you use a handgun to display your anger.”

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Will Greenlee is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Will on X @OffTheBeatTweet or reach him by phone at 772-267-7926. E-mail him at will.greenlee@tcpalm.com .

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Two arrested after 'road rage' incidents in Martin County