AKRON, Ohio — Akron police have decided to charge a 39-year-old man in an Akron road rage incident despite claims of self-defense due to additional witness accounts and evidence.

News 5 has new information on a road rage incident in the area of ​​South Arlington and East Market Street that turned violent.

This comes after Akron Police Capt. Michael Miller released 911 calls, including from the 39-year-old man involved.

“A guy hit my car. He was in the bike lane and I didn’t let him into my lane. He hit my car and when I screamed at him, he pulled a gun on me and I shot him back,” said the 39-year-old suspect.

Capt. Michael Miller said they initially listed the 39-year-old driver and the 78-year-old man, who suffered a gunshot wound to the face, as both victims and suspects.

But Miller said that changed after he said officers checked the 39-year-old’s claim of self-defense and then compared it to what witnesses said with additional physical and digital evidence and decided to- l charges of criminal assault.

“We were stopped, I swore at him and told him to stop, and he pulled a gun on me,” said the 39-year-old suspect.

“They just didn’t believe, the detectives as a collective group, that the self-defense explanation or the self-defense component of this really had any merit,” Miller said.

According to preliminary reports, a minor accident involving two vehicles occurred on East Market Street when police said the victim’s vehicle sideswiped the other vehicle, leaving minor damage.

Authorities said the 39-year-old driver of the other vehicle allegedly fired multiple shots, one of which struck the victim, and assisted 911 callers until crews arrived.

“She’s got a pink cloth around her face right now,” a 911 caller said.

After the shooting, police said the 39-year-old man left the scene.

That’s when the man finally called dispatch, and officers located and arrested him without further incident.

“We do not believe that the victim did anything to cause or cause the circumstances to happen to him. That just depends on the person deciding to escalate something that was originally just a minor accident and choosing to use a firearm,” Miller said.

Miller said the 39-year-old’s outlook is not for his department to determine at this time beyond the initial investigation.

As for the 78-year-old, Miller said he is expected to survive.