A Jamaica man was sentenced for striking a delivery truck driver with a rubber mallet during a road rage incident in Brooklyn last year, prosecutors announced Monday.
Damian Bailey, 36, was sentenced to three years in prison and three years’ post-release supervision following his conviction last month for second-degree assault.
According to trial testimony, at around noon on March 20, 2016, Bailey was driving a dollar van in the vicinity of 98 Flatbush Ave. when he struck a Fresh Direct delivery truck, driven by a 23-year-old man. Following the collision, Bailey and the victim exited their vehicles and got into an argument.
As the victim stood in front of Bailey’s van and attempted to take a photo of the license plate, law enforcement sources said, Bailey got back in his van and drove forward, forcing the victim to grab on to the hood of the van.
Prosecutors said that Bailey drove about half a block with the victim clinging onto the hood before he got out of the van and struck the victim multiple times with a rubber mallet.
Many nearby motorists flagged down an NYPD officer, pointing in the direction of Bailey and the victim. The officer left his vehicle and saw Bailey holding the mallet and walking away from the victim, who was in a fetal position on the ground next to the dollar van, according to trial testimony.
The victim was taken to Methodist Hospital. He suffered three broken vertebrae to his spine and bruises to his shoulder and knee.
Acting District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said, “This defendant inexplicably escalated a minor traffic incident into an assault and left the victim with serious injuries. Such unwarranted violence should never be a response to a dispute, making today’s prison sentence appropriate and just.”
