PORT ANGELES — A 39-year-old Port Angeles man has been charged with two counts of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon for his role in an alleged road rage incident on Christmas Eve.
Shane Harrison Colman was released from the Clallam County jail on his personal recognizance after his initial court appearance Tuesday.
He will be arraigned in Clallam County Superior Court on Jan. 12.
The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office said Colman pointed a pistol at a couple on U.S. Highway 101 near Bayview Avenue on Dec. 24.
Colman, in one vehicle, got into an argument with a 21-year-old woman and a 22-year-old man in another vehicle after one tried to pass the other, Sheriff’s Sgt. Randy Pieper said.
Colman was outside his vehicle exchanging words with the other driver when he allegedly reached inside his vehicle, pulled out the weapon and pointed it at the couple, Pieper said.
Despite a lack of criminal history, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney James Kennedy requested a $25,000 bail for Colman based on a community safety concern.
“The allegations at hand are pretty disturbing, your honor,” Kennedy told Superior Court Judge Brian Coughenour.
“It looks like Mr. Colman has a pretty short fuse and flew off the handle.”
Defense attorney Stan Myers argued for his client’s release, saying Colman is a nine-year Clallam County resident with significant ties to the community.
“We have a difference of opinion as to exactly what happened in this case,” Myers told the judge.
“My client is going to assert that he was acting in self defense, that it was a road rage incident that went bad and the other side was attacking him with the vehicle.”
Colman was ordered to have no contact with the alleged victims and to surrender his firearms as conditions of his release.
His father said he had taken possession of the firearms prior to the court hearing.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.