Beacon Man Menaces Driver With Illegal Weapon: Sheriff

COLD SPRING, NY — A Dutchess County resident was accused of threatening a woman who had tried to pass his car but hit his driver's side mirror.

Putnam County Sheriff Kevin J. McConville said, shortly before 6:30 p.m. Sunday, deputies were sent to Route 9D in the village of Cold Spring for a report of an automobile accident and the brandishing of a firearm.

The investigation, which was done with the assistance of the Village of Cold Spring Police Department, found that a car driven by an 18-year-old Cold Spring woman was traveling south on Route 9D just north of the Breakneck Tunnel when she passed a car in front of her.

Deputies said her car was not able to get back into her lane in time, and subsequently, her driver's side mirror struck the driver's side mirror of a car traveling north, being driven by 52-year-old man from Beacon.

The impact sent debris into his car and struck him in the head, authorities said.

He then turned his car around and followed the woman, where she stopped near a softball field, deputies said.

That was when he approached her car and knocked on the glass with a pistol he was holding, according to law enforcement.

The man, whose name was not released, was arrested and charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, a felony, and second-degree menacing, a misdemeanor.

He was arraigned in the Village of Nelsonville Court and sent to the Putnam County Jail on $10,000 bail.

The woman, whose name also was not released, was charged with reckless driving, a misdemeanor, and issued traffic tickets from moving from lane unsafely and leaving the scene of an accident.

The sheriff's office said the area where she passed the other car was a no-passing zone.