Feb. 28--RALEIGH -- A 25-year-old Raleigh man was arrested at a rehabilitation center Wednesday night on charges that he repeatedly used his car to hit another car carrying a man and a teenage girl earlier this month and then bit a firefighter and kicked a paramedic who came to help all three.
Arrest warrants sworn out by Raleigh police charged Remy Blaisdell Gagnon of 1805 Spiny Ridge Court with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and two counts of assault inflicting physical injury on emergency personnel, all felonies, and one count of driving recklessly to endanger, a misdemeanor.
The warrants stated that Gagnon bit the firefighter on the leg and kicked the paramedic "numerous times on the face and body" after they had come to the parking lot of a Whole Foods store at 3540 Wade Ave. because two cars had collided there.
As police reconstructed events, , the man, 48, and the girl, 14, had noticed a 2013 Hyundai driven by Gagnon following their 2001 Saab as they were getting onto Interstate 440 from Glenwood Avenue.
The car followed them to Dogwood Lane and was chasing their car before "it intentionally struck [the Saab] multiple times on the rear bumper and drive side door" near Redbud Lane, a block north of Wade Avenue, Officer D.S. Park wrote in his accident report.
The cars then went west on Wade one block to the parking lot, where the Saab was hit again, police spokesman Jim Sughrue said.
The people in the Saab ran into the store and Gagnon followed, police were told.
None of the three was seriously hurt, police said, but they were taken to Rex Hospital in Raleigh.
Nothing in police public statements offers an explanation into why the events began.
Sughrue said there was no indication Gagnon knew the man or the girl.
Gagnon was released from Rex and taken to another facility for in-patient treatment, Sughrue said, and police did not disclose that name.
According to an arrest report, however, Gagnon was taken into custody Wednesday afternoon at 3019 Falstaff Road, which is the Holly Hill facility.
He was being held in lieu of $171,000 bail for a first court appearance Thursday.
Gallagher: 919-829-4572
Copyright 2014 - The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)
