56-year-old Vincent Jean, a New Jersey resident, was arrested for an alleged first-degree attempted murder and aggravated assault, among other charges.
Neighbors claimed that Vincent was driving in reverse on a one-way street to avoid traffic during rush hour on Tuesday morning. While driving in reverse, Vincent hit another car at the intersection.
Police and prosecutors allege that the woman began taking pictures of the incident and Vincent’s car as he tried to flee the scene. Knowing that the woman had photo evidence of the crash, Vincent became infuriated with the woman and began following her in his car.
Mr. Jean allegedly drove over the woman, reversed, thus going over her a second time. While trying to escape, Vincent then hit her a third time!
NBC New York reported on the incident.
Home surveillance video showed the moment Jean chased the woman and plowed into her.
“He ran over her. Ran over her again, three times,” Isaac, a witness who did not want to provide his last name, told News 4 New York. It was his home camera that caught the harrowing incident around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. “How could you do a thing like this? It was a fender bender, that’s all.”
Seconds after the first hit, a school bus showed up and blocked the driver, according to the witness. It was at this point that the driver turned around and allegedly plowed into the victim again. Prosecutors said that Jean then sped away as he left the woman injured on the floor.
Neighbors called 911 as Isaac and his wife ran over to help the woman.
“As my wife put a blanket on her to keep her warm — it was raining and the grass was wet — she told my wife, ‘thank you,’” Isaac said.
The Union County prosecutor’s office charged Jean with attempted murder, aggravated assault and other offenses.
A few hours later, police said they found Jean sitting in his damaged SUV a few miles from the scene.
The 23-year-old woman was taken to the hospital in critical condition.
Jean made an initial court appearance and was being held in the county jail pending a pretrial detention hearing next Tuesday. He didn’t have an attorney listed, according to the prosecutor’s office.
The 23-year-old victim was initially listed as in critical condition, but later she was listed in fair condition.
One helpful neighbor who witnessed the incident said, “He was deraigned. I think he lost it. I think he went crazy.”
Once again, the need for the public to understand how to deal with confrontational situations is highlighted.
The Management Training Specialists give some food for thought.
- Make sure you are in full control of your emotional responses. By allowing temper, fear or anger to drive your behaviour, you lose some control over your responses. Your amygdala, which has a key role to play in regulating your temper, could run away with you if you allow emotion to get the better of you. Take a deep breath, to lower your heart rate and blood pressure.
- If you have time to plan for the confrontation, think in advance what you are going to say and how you are going to say it. This gives you chance to control yourself and decide how you want the discussion to go.
- Determine what triggers your responses. For example, if the other person uses bad language, do you respond likewise? If they shout, do you tend to reciprocate? Have an idea of how you respond against specific triggers, so you can choose your response, rather than being driven be an automatic reflex.
- Often, a confrontational person will not be aware of how they are responding, as they are on automatic pilot. Make the person aware of how confrontational they are being. Saying something like ‘let’s talk about this rationally rather than having a shouting match’ or ‘Can we discuss this logically, instead of being aggressive’. Beware of accusing the other person…they may be aggressively defending themselves.
- Show understanding and empathy if necessary. Saying something like ‘This obviously is very important to you’ or ‘This means a lot to you, doesn’t it?’ creates some form of equal rapport and enables you to calm any over-the-top emotions that may be driving their responses.
- See the confrontation for exactly what it is. In other words, identify the motives of the other person. Are they angry for a good reason, or is it trivial? Even if it appears so to you, it might be touching the other’s hot button. The purpose of their argument might be to manipulate you, so be aware of that.
- Plan for a collaborative response. It may not be possible for you both to ‘win’, but you may be able to deal with it in a way that makes future collaboration between you still work. Find the best way forward, and you have a chance of dealing with the solution rather than dwelling on the problem.
This story syndicated with permission from For the Love of News