California Highway Patrol/Facebook Nathaniel Radimak has been arrested in a series of road rage attacks in Los Angeles, the California Highway Patrol says.
Nathaniel Radimak is the pipe-wielding Tesla driver arrested in road rage attacks on cars in Los Angeles, the California Highway Patrol said in a January 30, 2023, press release.
Radimak, 36, has ties to several states and has a lengthy criminal record dating back to 2007, according to court records and documents obtained by Heavy. His ex-girlfriend obtained a restraining order against him in 2022, accusing him of domestic violence, stalking and threatening to kill her, her current boyfriend and her family, including her parents, court documents show.
“On Sunday, January 29, 2023, Mr. Nathaniel Walter Radimak was arrested by the California Highway Patrol’s Southern Division Major Crimes Unit in connection with assaults he is believed to have committed on January 11, 2023, while driving a Tesla, Model X, on State Route 2 near York Blvd, in the city of Los Angeles,” the California Highway Patrol said in the press release. “The assaults were captured on a dash-cam video and several leads were provided to our department by the public which led to the arrest.”
Police added that the investigation is ongoing and Radimak could face additional charges. Police had been searching for a Tesla driver in other similar incidents in the LA area. “Anyone with information on the incidents is asked to contact the California Highway Patrol Central Los Angeles Area office at 213-744-2331,” the highway patrol said in the press release. “After business hours, please contact the Los Angeles Traffic Management Center at 323-259-3410.”
Here’s what you need to know about Los Angeles road rage suspect Nathaniel Radimak:
1. Nathaniel Radimak Was Charged With Assault With a Deadly Weapon & Held on $5.175 Million Bail, the Highway Patrol Says
California Highway Patrol/FacebookNathaniel Walter Radimak was arrested on January 29, 2023, the California Highway Patrol said.
According to the California Highway Patrol press release, Radimak was arrested in Torrance and ccharged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon. He was also arrested on two outstanding warrants, police said, but the press release did not provide any additional information about the charges he is facing in those cases.
Radimak was booked at the Los Angeles Police Department’s 77th Street Regional Jail and was being held on $5,175,000 bond, according to the press release. The bail is a combined total on the assault charges and the previous warrants, police said.
It was not immediately clear whether Radimak hired an attorney who could comment on his behalf or when he will appear in court. A photo released by the California Highway Patrol shows Radimak in handcuffs being led to a police vehicle. Police said they are still investigating if Radimak is connected to other road rage incidents in the Los Angeles region.
2. Radimak’s Ex-Girlfriend Wrote in the Restraining Order Application He Strangled Her Until She Blacked Out While They Were Dating & Later Threatened a ‘Massacre’ Was Coming
Along with his history of arrests in multiple states, Radimak recently had a restraining order filed against him in March in Los Angeles County Superior Court, according to court documents obtained by Heavy. The order was dismissed in April, but the woman re-filed the domestic violence-related case on April 28, records show. That case remains ongoing and a hearing was scheduled for January 30, records show.
According to court documents, the woman, who had previously dated Radimak, accused him of sending her several threatening emails using multiple accounts. In one email, Radimak told her she “should be dead,” the woman said in the restraining order application. She also said Radimak told her he was “tracking” her “moves” and that she would be “shot upon approach.”
The woman said Radimak also threatened to stab her and her current partner and said a “massacre is coming.” She also said Radimak took photos from her Facebook and drew over her partner’s face and “drew arrows pointing at me with the word kill,” the court documents state.
The woman wrote that he previously threatened her with a baseball bat, had tried to strangle her and punched her. She wrote that on one occasion while they were still dating he “snapped,” and started threatening her and took a baseball bat and swung it at her face after bashing the outside of the house, according to the court documents.
“I told him to leave and he wouldn’t. He then threw a bucket of water at me as I try to calm him down. He picked up a milk crate and threw it at me but (it) hit the car instead,” she wrote. “He said he’ll beat me up that no one will recognize me and that I will make headlines. He kept repeating that until he got an Uber and left. But before he left he tried to choke me and punched my arm.”
On another occasion, his ex-girlfriend wrote, Radimak became upset after an “encounter at Best Buy” that he blamed on her. She said he tried to choke her, headbutted her and caused her to bleed, she wrote in the restraining order application. She said she was afraid to call for help. The woman said he then began choking her and banging her head against the refrigerator until she blacked out, according to the court documents. She said she tried to call 911 but didn’t have the strength to do so, according to the court record.
3. The Tesla Driver Was Caught on Video Slamming on His Brakes & Then Striking a Victim’s Car With a Pipe Before Driving Away
Accoridng to Fox Los Angeles, the suspect, now identified as Radimak, was seen on video on a Glendale freeway trying to merge into the left lane and hitting a Chevrolet pickup truck, whose driver was recording the incident.
The suspect, driving a Tesla and wearing a black bandana as a face mask, then slammed on his brakes in the middle of the freeway, got out of his car and hit the Chevrolet’s window and door several times with a metal object described both as a pole and pipe, the news station reports.
The victim told KTLA, “Initially you think, ‘Should I pin him to the wall with my car?’ ‘Should I run him down?’ ‘What should I do?’ And I tried to stay focused and think, ‘I don’t want to go from victim to criminal in an instant.”
The victim, who asked the news station to remain anonymous, added, “Maybe it’s a pattern, maybe he was just having a bad day, I don’t know. Who can say what was going on in his head? I think it should be important for all of us, for this guy to get off the streets. “We can’t have people going around banging on people’s cars. That’s not the society I want to live in.”
The suspect was dubbed on social media as the “Tesla terrorizer,” and other possible victims came forward. A woman told KABC she was punched in the face and left with a black eye by an attacker matching Radimak’s description in October 2021.
“Lately, social media has been a better platform and tool to finding the suspect than law enforcement has ever been, at least from what I’ve see and what I’ve heard,” she told the news station. “It’s been concerning knowing that this case has been going on for a while, and the suspect has been walking out like the free man he is.”
Another victim told KABC she had her tires slashed by a suspect matching the same description in March, “For the past year, in part of my mind I thought: was there someone out to get me? All these different accounts have been good to know that it wasn’t me specifically. I’m just hoping, with all the exposure we can get something.”
4. Nathaniel Walter Radimak, a New York Native, Has a Lengthy Record of Arrests, Including on Assault, Robbery & Unlawful Imprisonment Charges & Has Lived in Several States, According to Public Records
Nathaniel Walter Radimak is originally from Rome, New York, according to a 2011 article in the Utica Observer-Dispatch. At that time, Radimak was wanted on multiple charges in Cicero, New York, including “felony third-degree robbery, sixth-degree conspiracy and second-degree harassment.” The newspaper wrote that Radimak, known as Nate Radimak, had a “lengthy criminal record.”
Radimak was also arrested in New York in 2007 and 2008 on charges including unlawful imprisonment, attempted assault, petit larceny and criminal mischief, in Onondaga County, court records show. The outcome of those cases, along with the 2011 case, were not immediately available.
Public records show that Radimak has lived in several states, including Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Oregon and Hawaii, along with multiple parts of California and New York, including Syracuse and Rochester, New York, and San Diego and Sacramento, California.
Radimak was arrested in Arizona in 2016 on assault and threatening charges, according to court records. The disposition of that case is listed as “other” in court records viewed by Heavy. In 2010, Radimak was arrested on an assault charge in Iron County, Utah, according to The Daily Spectrum.
In Pennsylvania, Radimak was arrested in 2009 on theft charges, according to court records. He was arrested in Ohio in 2007, also on theft charges, according to court records viewed by Heavy. The outcome of the Pennsylvania case was not immediately available. He received a suspended sentence in Ohio, according to court records.
Radimak was also arrested in 2009 in Miami-Dade County, Florida, on a petit theft charge, according to court records vieewd by Heavy. That misdemeanor case was eventually dismissed after Radimak was arrested in New York and jailed in an unrelate case, records show.
5. Radimak’s Ex-Girlfriend Wrote in the Restraining Order That He ‘Doesn’t Work or Have a Job,’ but Took Out a PPP Loan
According to the court documents in the restraining order case, Radimak’s ex-girlfriend wrote that he “doesn’t work or have a job.” She wrote that she had difficulty finding a last known address for him to serve him with documents in connection to the case.
But she wrote that he applied for a federal Paycheck Protection Loan for a business located in Sacramento. She wrote, “It was for a Commercial and Industrial Machinery and Equipment Repair and Maintenance shop.” She said when a friend went there to serve him with papers he found, “Instead of a machinery shop it was an ice cream shop and no industrial/machinery shop was anywhere to be found.” He received a $20,800 loan in 2021, records show.
She added, “I reached out to the respondent’s friend and asked if he knew where he was or where he lives. He denies knowing where the respondent could be and stated that he could be renting a room somewhere in Covina, but has no address of respondent. I tried searching for repondent online to find any information that would help obtain an address. Was able to find blog/posts about the respondent being a stalker and violent towards women, but no address. Continued to search, but did not find anything with an address.”