Driver goes on rampage with hammer in Wainfleet road rage case

Niagara Regional Police had to Taser the accused who challenged them to a fight

Police Tasered a Port Colborne man before arresting him after a woman’s car windshield was smashed with a hammer in rural Wainfleet Tuesday.

The victim, a 23-year-old Wainfleet woman, was heading home from work at about 6:30 p.m. when she noticed a man tailgating her vehicle, said Niagara Regional Police.

She pulled to the side of the road and slowed to let the man pass, but the male driver sideswiped her three times with both vehicles ending up in a ditch.

As the victim was calling 911, the man retrieved a hammer-type weapon and began smashing her front windshield to get at the woman and while shouting profanities and threatening to kill her numerous times.

The man was standing at the victim’s driver-side door when police arrived. Despite the presence of police, he continued to threaten to kill the victim and challenged officers to fight.

Police subdued and arrested the man with the help of a conducted energy weapon, or Taser.

The canine unit located the weapon used in the attack in a cornfield some distance away.

Walter Kirk, 65, was charged with multiple offences including dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, uttering death threats, mischief under $5,000, assault with a weapon, impaired operation of a motor vehicle and operating a motor vehicle with more than 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood.