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'It just really escalated': Motorcyclist pulls out knife during road rage incident in Beaverton

On Friday, a woman reported that a man on a motorcycle threatened to kill her while punching and hitting her car on Southwest Murray Boulevard.

BEAVERTON, Ore. — Beaverton police need the public's help to track down a road rage suspect. A man on a motorcycle kicked and punched a Tesla, and threatened the driver with a knife after a disagreement on the road, officers said.

It happened Friday afternoon along Southwest Murray Boulevard. The driver of the Tesla did not want to be identified or shown on camera out of concern for her safety and the safety of her family.

"I was on the right-hand lane, changing to the left hand lane. That's when the guy felt like I cut him off," she said.

She added the disagreement intensified and the motorcyclist followed her down the road. 

"(He was) yelling and screaming at me, cussing at me. Telling me to watch my blind spot," she said.

The woman thought that would be the end of it, but she said it became worse.

"He started attacking, hitting my car, kicking it, punching it. It just really escalated. Then he took out the knife and we have that on video," she said.

Her Tesla captured the incident around 3:30 p.m. Frida, as she made her way down Southwest Murray Boulevard from Allen Boulevard to Scholls Ferry Road.

"I would floor it and try to go, but Murray Boulevard is very busy and I could not escape him. I just felt like a sitting duck," she said.

With her children in the car, she had to remain calm. 

"They are traumatized. All weekend long they've been asking us, 'Have they caught the guy yet?' And I want to say yes but… We just need the public's help finding who it is," she said.

Beaverton police are enlisting the help of the public, too, for what they call criminal behavior.

"At one point, as she tries to drive away, he actually pulls out a knife and mentions that he's going to try and kill her," said officer Matt Henderson with the Beaverton Police Department. "Obviously, that's very problematic. That's a crime. It's called menacing in the state of Oregon."

The driver got away from the motorcyclist relatively unscathed, although she said he did leave some dents near the back door of her Tesla. She fears that someone else could be caught up in a similar scenario, unless police track down the suspect. 

"Nothing ever gets settled on the road," Henderson said. "At no point is getting out of your vehicle or threatening other drivers going to accomplish anything. Cooler heads always prevail."

Investigators encourage anyone who witnessed the road rage incident to contact Beaverton police. 

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