Gabriel Poventud on trial for Prince William County road rage incident
A road rage case involving a gun and a dump truck took center stage in Prince William County Tuesday. Now one of the two men involved is on trial for attempted murder.
The case centers on a March incident involving dump truck driver James Bringham and the driver of a Jaguar, 25-year-old Gabriel Poventud.
Authorities said Poventud fired 13 rounds into Bringham’s vehicle after Bringham pushed the Jaguar against the guardrail on southbound I-95. Poventud had his 2-year-old daughter in the back of his car at the time of the incident.
Poventud is now on trial for attempted murder.
Bringham said that within seconds after the silver Jaguar cut him off, the driver was pointing a gun at him. That’s why, Bringham said, he used his 7-ton dump truck to push the Jaguar against the right side of the guardrail.
Bringham said he had no idea that a 2-year-old child was in the back seat.
One witness said the incident was similar to playing bumper cars.
“These guys were going at it,” said witness Robert Via. “They might as well have been playing bumper cars out there on 95.”
Witnesses said they saw the dump truck pursue the Jaguar as the car crossed three lanes of rush hour traffic. The truck then rammed the jaguar again, this time into the left side of the Jersey wall.
The impact was where Poventud’s baby was sitting, screaming in terror.
The dump truck began to drive away.
That’s when Poventud climbed out of the driver’s side window, ran out into the interstate with his .45 caliber automatic pistol.
“As he was driving away the driver got of the car and shot at the back of the dump truck,” said witness Roy Wilson.
Both men were arrested for the incident and charged with attempted murder, among other charges. But authorities dropped charges against Bringham in exchange for his testimony.
Bringham is still facing reckless driving charges.
Poventud testified in his own defense, saying that he never pulled a gun on the truck driver until after his car was stopped against the Jersey wall.
Via, the witness, said he sympathized with Poventud.
“I saw a dump truck plowing into a silver sedan, if my kid was in the car I would have done the same thing,” Via said.
