La Pine man accused of threatening motorcyclists with weapon

A 76-year-old La Pine man was arrested Tuesday evening on charges he used a sharpened wrench to threaten motorcyclists who he thought were going too fast and kicking up dust on the dirt road he lives on, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies said.

Deputies were dispatched shortly before 5 p.m. to a reported weapon offense after a road rage incident in a La Pine neighborhood, Sgt. Kent Vander Kamp said. A caller to 911 said an unknown man was standing in the road in front of his house, holding a knife and threatening motorcyclists.

Deputies investigating the incident said several motorcyclists were riding in the 15000 block of Old Mill Road when resident Carlo Gerrold Lucia came upon them in his van, “generally upset about the motorcyclists’ perceived speed and them creating dust on the dirt road,” Vander Kamp said.

The sergeant said Lucia pursued the motorcycles and confronted them several times before he got out of his van “while making specific threats.” Neighborhood residents heard the confrontation and called 911.

Lucia had left the scene before deputies arrived, was contacted at his nearby home and cooperated with investigators, Vander Kamp said. They also recovered the reported “knife,” which he said was found to be a homemade sharp-edged weapon fashioned from a traditional wrench.

No one was injured in the incident, he added.

Lucia was arrested and booked into the county jail in Bend on two counts each of first- and second-degree menacing, unlawful use of a weapon and recklessly endangering another, along with a single count of reckless driving. Initial bail was set at $60,000.