Two New York City residents were arrested after police said they chased a man off a highway in Centre County and assaulted him in a parking lot during a road rage incident on Tuesday night.
Erekle Mechurtchlishvili, 36, and Vasili Popiashvili, 34, were each charged with one felony count of aggravated assault, one misdemeanor count of simple assault and one summary offense of harassment.
A man told state police at Rockview that after he merged into the left lane near mile marker 161 on Interstate 80 westbound, as was required for trucks and busses in a work zone, two males in a white semi truck “engaged in reckless operating behavior,” pulling alongside him and yelling at him, according to an affidavit of probable cause
The man said he continued westbound until the Snow Shoe exit at mile 147, where he got off the interstate in an attempt to get away from the truck. The two men in the white truck, later identified as Mechurtchlishvili and Popiashvili, continued to follow him into a parking lot at Rees’ Truck Stop on East Sycamore Road and parked in front of him, a state trooper wrote.
Mechurtchlishvili, carrying a baseball bat, and Popiashvili, brandishing a knife, got out of their vehicle, yelled at the man and climbed onto his truck, according to the affidavit. They then allegedly punched him multiple times in the head, face and body with closed fists and attempted to strike him with the bat and knife.
When the man put his truck in reverse, Mechurtchlishvili and Popiashvili returned to their vehicle and fled, according to the affidavit. State police at Clearfield stopped them at mile 118 on I-80 westbound and they were taken into custody.
A search of their truck found a baseball bat and multiple knives, the trooper wrote.
Mechurtchlishvili and Popiashvili were arraigned on Wednesday morning by District Judge Gregory Koehle, who denied bail. They are confined at the Centre County Correctional Facility.
Preliminary hearings are scheduled for June 25.
The man allegedly assaulted by Mechurtchlishvili and Popiashvili sustained a laceration that police said may have required stitches, but he refused treatment.
