Shots-fired road rage suspect appears in court

(Update: First court appearance; bail reduced; comments from alleged victim)

A Sisters-area man appeared in court Monday after being arrested on DUII and other charges Sunday evening in an alleged road rage incident. Deputies said 31-year-old Joseph Wade Tafte fired several shots at another vehicle on U.S. Highway 20 east of Sisters. Though no one was hurt, the alleged victim said one bullet hit his car.

Deputies were dispatched shortly before 7 p.m. to Highway 20W near milepost 2, just east of Sisters, after a woman riding in a Subaru Outback, heading east with a male driver, called 911 to report they were being tailgated by a large white Suburban that almost hit their car, Sgt. Troy Gotchy said.

A short time later, she said the Suburban had passed them and the driver fired several shots as it did. There were two people in both vehicles and no one was injured, Gotchy said.

The driver of the victim car told NewsChannel 21 on Monday he was heading home from a day at the coast with a good friend when “a white Suburban pulls out of the Space Age gas station at a high rate of speed, nearly losing control of his vehicle.”

“He begins to tailgate us and we thought he was going to plow us off the road, even though we were still in Sisters with a speed limit of 20 (mph),” he wrote.

“As we left Sisters on Highway 20, he continued to tailgate us and it appeared that he was trying to deliberately crash into us at speeds approaching 60 mph. I saw in my mirrors that he was all over the road crossing over the fog line and also crossing the double yellow center line. My friend called 911.

“A couple miles later, he decides to pass us, as we were approaching a no-passing zone. He slowly accelerated to pull up beside me and fired several shots, one of (them) hit the car I was driving. He sped off with speeds topping 80 mph. I sped up to see where he was going and we saw what road he turned off. All this happened when my passenger was (on the phone) with 911.”

Deputies say Tafte turned onto Central Street in the Plainview area. The caller’s Subaru parked near the intersection of Central Street and Highway 20 to await deputies.

Around 7:15 p.m., a deputy spotted the Suburban parked in the middle of Fryrear Road, near Cascade Estates Drive, Gotchy said. The deputy called for other units, and a high-risk (guns-drawn) vehicle stop was conducted due to the nature of the incident.

Tafte, who lives on Fryrear Road, was eventually taken into custody and brought to St. Charles Bend for evaluation, then later taken to jail. A gun was recovered at the scene, Gotchy said.

“Over my career, in the last 17 years, we’ve definitely seen a change in road rage from being upset at one another to maybe exchanging a hand gesture or yelling at another car,” sheriff’s Sgt. William Bailey said Monday.

“Over the past few years, we’ve definitely seen an increase in these more aggressive and sometimes more violent road rage incidents,” Bailey said. “Why that is occurring, I don’t know.”

Tafte, who appeared in court Monday by video from the Deschutes County Jail, faces 11 initial charges, including DUII-alcohol, three counts of reckless endangering, second-degree criminal mischief, hit-and-run (with property damage), unlawful use of a weapon, two counts of menacing, resisting arrest and interfering with a police officer.

Tafte’s bail was set at $30,000 by Deschutes County Circuit Judge Wells Ashby, who reduced it from the initial $70,000. During Monday’s hearing, the state requested and Ashby required that Tafte get an alcohol monitor if he does post bail and is released.

Tafte’s next court appearance is scheduled for next Monday, after a grand jury takes testimony and decides on charges for a formal indictment.