Man Jailed Following Violent Highway Attack Carrollton Police Call 'Worst We've Ever Seen'
CARROLLTON, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - Road rage was taken to a violent new level in Carrollton last week.
"Unbelievable," says crash victim and witness Dennis McCullough, "the gun could have gone off, one of the guys could have flipped the other guy over the railing. There was blood everywhere. It was like, man, this is a really bad situation that could get more worse than it is."
Last Thursday, March 18, McCullough was zipping along in the I-35 Express Lanes in Carrollton when he found himself in a chain collision crash.
A vehicle ahead suddenly braking for no apparent reason.
McCullough says his air bags deployed, temporarily knocking him unconscious.
"When I came to [it] was one of those situations that was like, 'wow, did this just happen?'"
But the roadside nightmare was about to get worse.
According to Carrollton Police, 26-year-old Dillon Stoffregen caused the crash, and then got into a violent brawl with other drivers, stabbing two men after they exited their vehicles, and choking another until he passed out.
"So when they came back in my line of sight, they were tussling and one of them had a knife," shares McCullough. "I said, 'oh, okay. I need to capture this in case it turns in a different direction'."
Trapped in his own crushed car, recording the attack was all McCullough could do.
Other drivers who stopped to help also drawn into the violent brawl.
"This is going from bad to worse," recalls McCullough, "and I'm seeing the stabbing taking place and I'm seeing them struggling and I see the other guy fighting who jumped in and then I also saw the one of them had a gun. I said, this is not good."
One passerby seen in the video, in a plaid shirt, lost his weapon in the tussle and was the one choked unconscious. Another passerby kicked the pistol out of the suspect's reach.
Stoffregen has been charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
He's being held in the Dallas County jail on $55,000 bail.
Meanwhile, Carrollton police have called the incident the most extreme case of road rage they've ever seen and they still don't have all the answers.
"He had to have had some training," muses McCullough about the suspect, "the way he handled himself. I saw how he turned the guy and how he was able to choke the other guy out. It was three against one and he came out on top. His rage still going."
If given the opportunity, McCullough says he would ask the Flower Mound man 'why'?" And "what caused you to be so mad at the other drivers?"
Even now, McCullough says he is both perplexed and saddened by what could have been.
"Just a month and a half ago, my wife was in an accident. A guy ran a red light and hit her. I look at it where my children could have lost two parents in less than two months. But God."
