Road rage turned violent lands man in prison

A man was arrested last week after his road rage turned violent allegedly leading to a few officers getting hit by a car.

Last Thursday, Sammy Christopher Kapileo was arrested for allegedly hitting a few police officers with his car in a fit of rage over a traffic violator stop.

Kapileo, 49, is facing charges of reckless driving, assault with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery, obstructing justice, resisting arrest, fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, and vandalism.

Kapileo appeared before Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph Camacho last Friday for a bail hearing where the judge imposed a $25,000 bail on the defendant.

After his bail hearing, Kapileo was remanded back to Department of Corrections custody. Camacho ordered that Kapileo be brought back to court on May 24 for a preliminary hearing while his arraignment is set for June 3.

According to court documents, at around 7:47am last May 16, Department of Public Safety officer Kristen Salas was on duty traveling southbound along Chalan Pale Arnold, Garapan near the NMI Museum.

During this time, she said she saw a blue Hyundai Tucson in front of her that allegedly made an unsafe switch of lane toward the inner southbound lane. This prompted the officer to conduct a traffic violator stop pulling the Hyundai Tucson over near the entrance of the U.S. District Court for the NMI building.

After pulling the Tucson over, Salas approached the vehicle and greeted Kapileo who was operating the vehicle. This was when Salas informed the operator that she was pulling him over for an unsafe switch of lane.

However, Salas said Kapileo yelled at her claiming the stop was uncalled for as no one was hurt therefore the switch wasn’t unsafe.

Salas proceeded to ask Kapileo for his driver’s license and registration but he allegedly refused. This led Salas to call for a supervisor’s assistance but during this time, Kapileo was allegedly getting more aggressive, and he had rolled up his window and drove away before parking at the District Court parking lot.

Soon after, DPS officers Cris Deleon Guerrero and Sgt. Michael Langdon arrived and managed to obtain Kapileo’s license.

Later, another officer arrived at the scene and met with Langdon who was talking to Kapileo.

After obtaining Kapileo’s registration, the officer asked him to step out the vehicle but Kapileo allegedly refused asking why.

To this, the officer allegedly informed Kapileo that he was going to be arrested for eluding an officer and obstruction of justice.

After hearing this, Kapileo allegedly started shouting at the officers. The officer then reached into Kapileo’s driver side to try and open the car but Kapileo grabbed his am and put the car into drive, moving forward.

As the officer tried to pull his arm out, Kapileo put his car into reverse and backed into Salas’ car before driving forward.

At this time Deleon Guerrero opened the passenger door and tried to stop Kapileo.

The officers then drew their firearm and instructed Kapileo to stop his vehicle but he still did not comply and accelerated towards two of the officers almost hitting them with his vehicle.

Kapileo then drove toward the NMI District Court where he stopped his vehicle and was shortly after arrested.

In her report, Salas shared that while she was preparing a citation for Kapileo in her car, she felt a hard bump and saw that Kapileo’s rear bumper had hit the front of her car.

Salas added that as she tried to back up, she saw Deleon Guerrero open Kapileo’s front passenger door in an attempt to stop him, but Kapileo reversed quickly, knocking over officer Deleon Guerrero before backing into another car.

Then, Kapileo drove off and made a complete stop in front of the District Court before getting out of his vehicle and tossing officer Salas the keys.