A Cottonwood man was arrested for brandishing a firearm at other motorists during a reported road rage incident on Highway 36 in Carlotta yesterday.

36-year-old John Eric Vandenbossche. | HCSO

Suspect John Eric Vandenbossche was stopped by the California Highway Patrol along Highway 36 around 5 p.m., after several motorists reported seeing a man in a blue Dodge pickup wave a handgun at another car.

CHP Sgt. Nick Ranger told the Outpost today, that Vandenbossche was stopped and taken into custody at gunpoint with the assistance of a Humboldt County sheriff’s deputy and two Fortuna police officers, after he was reportedly uncooperative with officers.

Upon being detained, Vandenbossche reportedly told officers that he had three weapons inside the vehicle and that he had recently been involved in a road rage incident because another driver was tailgating him.

Sgt. Ranger said that officers found two loaded rifles and one empty handgun with high a loaded high-capacity magazine filled with armor-piercing bullets sitting a few feet away from the handgun in the suspect’s truck.

The handgun reportedly matched the description of the one brandished at the reporting persons, and Vandenbossche was arrested after the victims and witnesses identified the 36-year-old as the same man who brandished a gun at them earlier that day.

Vandenbossche also faces charges of possessing a high-capacity magazine. Sgt. Ranger said that Vandenbossche had no known criminal history prior to the arrest.