A road rage incident that reportedly featured one driver pointing a weapon at another began on I-29 ended with an arrest in Platte City on Hwy. 92 at Kentucky Avenue, with a authorities finding two AR-15s, two other firearms, ammunition, a bulletproof vest, and camouflage clothing in the suspect’s vehicle.
Arrested was Tyler R. Bates, age 25, of Kansas City in Clay County. Bates is now charged with two felony counts of unlawful use of a weapon, with one count alleging he exhibited a Glock 23 in a threatening manner and another count he did the same thing with an AR-15.
Bates remains in the Platte County Jail with his bond set at $100,000 cash only. He requested a reduction in bond, which was denied on Tuesday in the court of Judge Quint Shafer. His next court appearance is scheduled for Nov. 20.
Bates at this time does not have an attorney on record and has been supplied with an application for representation from a public defender.
At about 3 p.m. last Wednesday, the Platte County Sheriff’s Department received a report of a road rage incident on southbound Interstate 29 north of Hwy. 92. The incident was reported as occurring between a tractor trailer and a dark blue Volvo station wagon. The deputy located the station wagon and followed it as it drove southbound onto the exit to Hwy. 92 and turned right at the bottom of the ramp.
When the deputy pulled behind the car, which had stopped prior to the emergency lights being activated, he heard a truck driver who had also stopped nearby state: “He has a gun” as he was pointing at the car.
According to court documents, the deputy as he approached the car noticed what appeared to be body armor and set it aside on the front passenger seat. The driver, later identified as Bates, was compliant with the deputy’s instructions and was immediately detained while other details were investigated.
The truck driver who had reported the road rage incident said in a voluntary written statement to authorities: “I was out in the passing lane passing a semi when a car passed both trucks on the shoulder, then pulled in front of my truck and brake checked me, then took off and did it again. I almost hit him the second time. He then took off a little ways and showed me a pistol in the window, then rolled the window down, changed hands with the gun and aimed the gun at me out a window. I then called 911 and kept following him to get his license plate and then he pulled a rifle from the back seat, which looked like an AR-15 and showed this to me. After pulling the rifle and putting it down in the back seat it looked like he was trying to put on some sort of vest. He then exited at Platte City.”
According to court documents, the deputy observed in plain view the butt stock of what appeared to ban AR-15 rifle in the back seat. During a search of the vehicle, the deputy found a black Glock 23 handgun in the inside storage compartment of the driver’s side door. The deputy said the handgun was loaded with a full magazine.
Behind the driver and front passenger seats, the deputy said he found an AR-15 rifle that was partially sticking out of a soft rifle cases that was not closed. The magazine was loaded. Inside the pouches of the rifle case the deputy found multiple other AR-15 magazines. There was a full loaded 100 round drum magazine located on the back seat.
In the front passenger seat the deputy says he found a blue ballistic vest. In the glove compartment of the car, a black 40 caliber Smith and Wesson M & P Shield handgun with a loaded magazine and one round in the chamber was located, according to the allegations.
After getting written consent to search the rest of the vehicle, a sheriff’s detective found a second soft rifle case with another AR-15 style rifle loaded with a magazine with green tipped ammunition but no round in the chamber. Additional items found during the consent search included a multi-piece “ghillie suit,” which is camouflage clothing, a pair of binoculars, two hand held radios with an ear piece, a soft pistol holster and a welder’s protective arm suit, according to court documents.
According to court documents, Bates initially stated he was currently working as a welder in Wathena, Kan. On his way home from work he at first said he was driving southbound on I-29 north of Platte City when a tractor-trailer almost ran him off the road.
Bates said all the weapons in his car were all legal weapons he had purchased and then built on many of the add-on items such as the stocks and trigger mechanisms. Bates also said he occasionally worked as an unlicensed bounty hunter for a bail bondsman in Kansas.
After it was pointed out to Bates that his version of events on the highway differed significantly from what the truck driver had told authorities, Bates recanted his story about nearly being run off the road, according to court documents. Bates said there were two trucks driving next to each other in the southbound lanes of the interstate, he sped up and passed both trucks on the right shoulder and then pulled back in front of the truck in the left lane. Bates allegedly admitted to decelerating quickly in front of the truck and to rolling down his driver’s side window and hanging his arm out the window with the Glock 23 in his hand.
According to court documents, Bates admitted to then reaching around in the back seat area and retrieving his AR-15 rifle and showing it to the truck driver. At some point during the incident, he could not remember exactly when, he also grabbed his ballistic vest and put it on over his head, Bates admitted, according to court documents.
Bates told detectives when he was stopped by the deputy after getting off the interstate at Hwy. 92, he realized he still had the ballistic vest on so he removed it and placed it on the front passenger seat because he did not want the deputy to get the wrong idea about him and think he was looking to start an altercation at the time of his arrest, according to court documents. He said “that would be suicide by cop and I did not want that,” according to the allegations.
At one point Bates allegedly said to officers: “I bet you have never arrested someone who was packing that much heat and better armed than you were.”