Speeding argument allegedly ends with threats, stun gun
Published 2:29 pm Friday, October 14, 2016
SALISBURY — A Salisbury man was charged with assault with a deadly weapon after he was accused of using a stun gun on another man.
The victim, Eric Nianouris, facilities director with Rowan-Salisbury Schools, told Salisbury Police that on Oct. 7 he was driving along Ellis and Council streets before turning onto Innes. At the intersection of Innes and Statesville Boulevard, a silver Prius came up beside him. The driver, Jonathan Charles Bledsoe, 32, motioned for Nianouris to roll down his window. When Nianouris complied, Bledsoe allegedly began to yell at him for speeding through his neighborhood.
“I’m going to f—ing kill you,” he allegedly told Nianouris.
Nianouris pulled away from the light, headed towards home. Bledsoe followed him. According to police, when the two reached Summit Avenue, Nianouris pulled over and the two got out of their cars. Bledsoe asked if Nianouris was going to apologize, and Nianouris asked if Bledsoe planned to apologize for swearing in front of his 13-year-old daughter, who was a passenger in the front seat.
Nianouris said that Bledsoe pulled out a Taser, sparked it once and hit him in the chin with it. At that point, someone driving by pulled over and told them to break it up. Bledsoe left, and his license plate number was reported to Salisbury Police.
When police spoke to Bledsoe, he told them that he has a small child who often plays in the street in the neighborhood where Nianouris was allegedly speeding, and that he told him not to speed or he’d “f— him up.” According to Captain Melonie Thompson with the Salisbury Police Department, Bledsoe said that when Nianouris got out of his car, he told Bledsoe to hit him and drew back his arm. Bledsoe said he sparked his stun gun, but did not use it on Nianouris.
According to Thompson, the passerby noted a laceration to Nianouris’s chin and a drop of dried blood on his shirt. Nianouris was treated by EMS.
Bledsoe was charged Thursday with assault inflicting serious injury and communicating threats. He was released with a written promise of a court date.
