A Middletown man spent some time in the emergency room at Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank Monday after getting pepper-sprayed in a road rage incident, borough police said.
Michaelangelo D’Amico , 21, is believed to have tailgated Pamela Antonucci-Pizzi, 36, after she cut him off in traffic while both were traveling southbound on Route 35 in Middletown around 11:30 a.m., said Red Bank police Captain Darren McConnell, the department spokesman.
The tailgating, and possible exchanges of words, continued as the two drove into Red Bank along Riverside Avenue, Water Street and onto Maple Avenue, McConnell.
When the two motorists reached the traffic light at Broad Street, “they managed to get side-by-side, whether by accident or on purpose,” McConnell said. After an apparent exchange of words, and without leaving her vehicle, Antonucci-Pizzi sprayed a commercially-available pepper spray at D’Amico.
“She said she felt threatened,” McConnell said of Antonucci-Pizzi, also a Middletown resident.
The two motorists continued on, but D’Amico wound up at the hospital getting treated for irritation to his eyes from the spray.
McConnell said Red Bank police didn’t learn about the incident until D’Amico was at the hospital, when they were alerted by Little Silver police, and didn’t know how he got to the hospital.
McConnell said both drivers were informed they could sign complaints against the other, but as of midday Tuesday, neither had.
