Family upset after driver in fatal Arizona road-rage clash set free. Here’s what happened
A 27-year-old was shot and killed after a road rage incident in Tucson, Arizona, turned fatal in March, police said. The county attorney’s office dropped the charges against the shooter.
Rudolph “Rudy” Vega was struck by a bullet on March 4 after getting into a dispute with 31-year-old David Rivera while both were on the road, according to a news release from the Tucson Police Department.
At one point in the argument, police said, Rivera fired his weapon at Vega, who was a passenger in another car.
The vehicle carrying the wounded Vega headed to a nearby hospital while Rivera pulled over to the side of the street until Tucson police made contact with him, officials said.
Both Vega and Rivera were driving westbound on West Valencia Road from South Santa Clara Avenue in southwest Tucson during the dispute, police said.
Rivera was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and then booked at the Pima County Jail. A day later, police said, Vega died from the gunshot wound. Rivera was then charged with manslaughter, according to KVOA News 4 Tucson.
However, those charges have since been dropped.
The outcome was a result of Arizona’s self-defense laws. Under A.R.S. 13-405, a person can threaten or use deadly force on another person if a “reasonable person would believe that deadly physical force is immediately necessary to protect himself against the other’s use or attempted use of unlawful deadly physical force.”
In Rivera’s case, he said he was “under fire,” so he shot his weapon at Vega, according to a 911 audio recording the Pima County Attorney’s Office highlighted in a news release.
Rivera didn’t have to prove he acted in self-defense. Instead, the burden of proof was placed on county prosecutors who had to show he didn’t act in self-defense, the release stated.
The gathered evidence pointed in Rivera’s favor.
“Every lead prosecutor who reviewed the evidence reached the same decision that Rivera cannot be charged in the fatal shooting of Rudy Vega,” the release said.
After the shooting, Rivera stayed at the scene and provided Tucson police with a statement of the incident, the release said.
Rivera said he was shot at first, but investigators never found a gun in the other vehicle, according to police reports obtained by KVOA News 4 Tucson.
Vega’s family is furious.
“Rudy Vega was fatally murdered on March 4. Today we went in and talked to the Pima County Attorney’s office and my nephew was murdered again with no legal justice in his favor,” Patricia Coronado, Vega’s aunt, told the news station.
The Vega family isn’t alone in their frustrations or experience with the self-defense statute.
In 2011, David Appleton allegedly shot Tom Pearson in a fatal road rage incident. Appleton said Pearson choked him through his window, so he shot him in the chest, The Arizona Republic reported in 2019.
Pearson told police he feared for his life, yet officials never found signs of strangulation on him, the newspaper reported. Eight days later, Maricopa County Attorney’s Office walked back the second-degree murder charge.
“After twice meeting with Rudy’s family, we are heartbroken over their loss. We are so sorry for their pain,” Pima County Attorney Laura Conover said in a news release. “Until or unless the Arizona Legislature revisits its gun laws and self-defense statutes, PCAO can only operate under the legal framework as it exists.”
This story was originally published July 30, 2021 at 4:49 PM with the headline "Family upset after driver in fatal Arizona road-rage clash set free. Here’s what happened."
