A Newport News woman's car window was shot out during a road rage confrontation near downtown, after she says another driver merged in front of her near an Interstate 664 exit ramp and the encounter escalated into gunfire. No one was struck, but the bullet tore through her vehicle after what police describe as only a brief exchange between the two drivers.
According to The Virginian-Pilot, Newport News police are investigating the road rage incident in which someone shot through the woman's car window. The newspaper reports that the woman called 911 at 4:12 p.m. eight days earlier, on October 15, to report that another car had merged in front of her near the Interstate 664 exit ramp at 27th Street and Jefferson Avenue. The person in the other car then fired a gunshot through her vehicle window following the brief exchange, according to the outlet's reporting.
Police Keep Details Under Wraps
Newport News Police Department spokesperson Kelly King declined to release several specifics while the investigation continues, including the number of people who were in the woman's car, a description of the other vehicle, and which window of the car was struck. King also would not detail what the dispute between the two drivers was actually about. The station's report notes that King wrote the information could not be released because the investigation was ongoing.
The shooting happened near downtown Newport News, close to a stretch of Interstate 664 that has seen gunfire scares before. In May, Virginia State Police opened an investigation into a reported shooting on southbound I-664 at Jefferson Avenue, which WAVY reported took place just after 6 p.m., at around 6:05 p.m. State police said there were no injuries related to any gunfire in that case, though one person suffered a minor injury while trying to exit a vehicle. The available evidence does not establish whether that May incident and this month's shooting near the same interstate corridor are connected.
A Familiar, Troubling Pattern On I-664
This is not the first time a driver has reported gunfire along I-664. In April 2021, a Virginia Beach woman told police her vehicle had been shot at while she was driving with her four children in the southbound lanes of the interstate, according to WTKR. She later found a bullet hole and a bullet round lodged in the back of her car; she and her children were not injured. Police in that case arrested a 26-year-old man, Donte Michael-Lewis Gee, who was charged with shooting at an occupied vehicle and taken to the Newport News City Jail, the station reported. It is not known whether anyone has been identified or arrested in connection with this month's shooting.
Road rage in Newport News has turned deadly before. In August 2022, Crystal Lynn Mittelstadter, 51, of Newport News, was shot and killed in a road rage incident that ended in a Food Lion parking lot, and the man convicted in her death was later sentenced to eight years in prison, per prior Virginian-Pilot coverage. That case remains separate from this month's shooting, but it underscores how quickly a roadway dispute in the city can turn violent.
Investigation Continues
Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew and Mayor Phillip Jones presented mid-year gun violence data in August; WAVY described the data as encouraging and reported specific figures. For now, police have not said whether they have identified a suspect in this month's shooting, and the investigation into what happened on the I-664 exit ramp near 27th Street and Jefferson Avenue remains active.
