BATON ROUGE — A man is recovering after he was struck by a bullet in the shoulder in a possible road rage incident Friday afternoon in Baton Rouge. Doug Day, who was driving back from a lawn care job, around 6 p.m. last Friday says he never expected something like this to happen, but he’s thankful that the incident wasn’t much worse.
“It was a miracle that the bullet did not hit anything,” Day told UWK.
Day was leaving a grass cutting job near Airline Highway and Tom Drive, and decided to take Choctaw instead of Florida Boulevard to get back home. He was in his truck, pulling a trailer with his work equipment.
He pulled out from Airline going toward Choctaw, but needed to stop abruptly due to oncoming traffic stopping him from making a turn.
“I didn’t see anybody behind me. But when it finally cleared and I started to go, I did hear a honk, but I didn’t think nothing of it, because it’s a bit of a busy intersection,” Day explained.
However, a vehicle may have been behind him, because what happened next changed everything.
“That’s when that vehicle pulled into the left lane, and they passed me up and got about three car lengths ahead of me,” Day recalled. “And they either slowed down or stopped, and as I went to pass them, I guess that’s when they riddled my truck with the bullets.”
Day said his windows were up at the time and are tinted. There was never a verbal altercation or anything else that led up to the shooting, he added.
“I didn’t even look at the car when I went past them. I didn’t even look at them. There was no verbal altercation. We didn’t yell at one another.”
According to Day, nearby businesses heard the shooting and after reviewing surveillance footage, said there were nine gunshots. Day described it as “extremely rapid fire.”
Day was able to veer his truck off the roadway, hitting a curb before pulling into a parking lot. He proceeded to get out and call 911, not realizing the extent of the shooting.
Because he’s a “car guy,” Day was able to give the operator a description of the vehicle that shot at him: “I was instantly telling her mid 70s to mid 80s, Oldsmobile Cutlass brown, tan or beige in color, Texas plates.”
“When I called 911, they asked if I’d been hit, and I’m like, ‘I really don’t know, but my arm hurts,’ and that’s when I looked down and saw the blood all on the ground. I said, ‘Yes, I’m hit, but I don’t know where, I can’t see’.”
At first, Day didn’t notice much except for the pain in his arm, but as he waited for the police to arrive, he started feeling worse, beginning to feel lightheaded and woozy. He said it felt like “forever” for the first officer to arrive, but he knows they were quick; the ambulance was soon after.
“The ambulance showed up. They immediately stuck me on the stretcher and they started doing their thing,” he said. “At first they thought it was two shots because I was bleeding in two places, yeah, but they ripped the shirt off and dropped it on the ground.”
They put a collar around his neck, which prevented him from moving his head much, but Day said his mobility overall has been normal. Once he was at the hospital, the staff was amazed at how calm and stable he was; even his blood pressure was in a normal range.
“The bullet hit my left rear shoulder and came out the front of my neck. It literally missed everything. Everybody at the hospital was shocked that it didn’t hit anything.”
He only needed to stay two nights at the hospital before being released. Right now, his arm is in a sling for six to eight weeks and he’ll need to visit an orthopedic doctor in a few weeks.
He is staying with family right now while he recovers, but he’s optimistic overall, even with having to miss work for the next couple of months.
As for his truck, it’s home and riddled with bullet holes, but Day is already making plans to fix it with a friend. They’ve discussed swapping out the doors and getting the glass re-tinted.
Day says while he’s aware Baton Rouge is known for being dangerous, he’s never had any issues.
“I’m all over the town. I drive everywhere, and I feel like I’ve never been scared of anything, but that was kind of crazy that someone would do that and have such ill regard for human life.”
While he doesn’t feel like the situation has changed his perspective too much, he does feel a little more cautious: “I may avoid that corner for a while, I just never expected to deal with this,” Day said.
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