An Uzbekistani truck driver was arrested Sunday after a road rage incident evolved into an alleged knife pursuit off Interstate-80 in Uinta County, court documents say.
Alisher M Sabirov, 36, is a commercial semitruck driver who claims mixed martial arts experience, and who is now facing one count of aggravated assault (punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines) and another of reckless endangering (up to one year in jail and $750 in fines), in Evanston Circuit Court.
He’s being held on a $10,000 cash or surety bond, and his preliminary hearing is set for Friday.
The investigation started at about 3:37 p.m. Sunday, when a commercial truck driver, distressed and out of breath, called 911 to say another trucker had chased him around the area of Exit 33 off I-80, with a knife, says an evidentiary affidavit filed in the case.
“He’s chasing me with a knife!” the caller said at the time, according to the document.
Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Scott Neilson responded to the scene. There he met a trucker whom court documents identify as “N.M.,” who said the driver of a white semitruck had been driving aggressively on the interstate moments before.
Neilson instructed another trooper to keep driving west and look for the suspect while Neilson interviewed N.M.
N.M. told Neilson that both trucks were traveling west on I-80, when the white semitruck passed him on the left, then cut hard against him to the right while the two vehicles were still aligned. N.M. verged onto the right-side shoulder and honked at the white semitruck, the document says.
N.M. reported that later when he got behind the other semitruck, the driver braked suddenly, or “brake-checked” him. When N.M. drew to the side of the white semitruck, its driver gestured angrily with his hands, and N.M. motioned for the pair to exit and work out the issue, says the affidavit.
And they did.
With both trucks parked, the men confronted each other between the two vehicles.
In N.M.’s account, the other driver — later identified as Sabirov — was shouting things like, “F*** you” and “I’ll kick your ass.”
Neilson checked N.M.’s chest for marks, as N.M. had said Sabirov shoved and punched him. The trooper did not see any marks, says the document.
Sabirov said he had a gun in his truck and would shoot N.M., the latter reported.
Sabirov then retrieved a black-colored knife from his back pocket, opened it with two hands and chased N.M. around the area with it, while N.M. chided Sabirov for using a knife and not fighting “like a man,” says the affidavit.
N.M. said that he spotted a white box truck parked up the hill and called to the driver in it to call 911, and the driver said he already had.
There’s no record of any such 911 call, the affidavit says.
N.M.’s truck had a camera, but the troopers were unable to get video from it at that time since the trucking company was closed for the night.
Meanwhile, To The West
Meanwhile, another trooper had stopped Sabirov at around milepost 3 on the interstate, and had searched him, detained him and read him his rights, the affidavit says.
Sabirov at first denied being involved with anything unusual. He then changed course, the document relates, and said the driver of a blue truck had been speeding and cutting other drivers off while changing lanes.
Sabirov said the driver of the blue truck emerged angry and speaking Russian.
Sabirov informed the other driver he’s a UFC fighter and told him to go away, according to Sabirov’s interview.
They yelled at each other and left, Sabirov told troopers.
Neilson felt there was probable cause to search Sabirov’s truck, which is a Freightliner.
Authorities found a black knife matching N.M.’s description of the attack weapon in the center console of Sabirov’s truck, says the affidavit. Sabirov denied having a gun, and authorities didn’t find a gun.
In N.M.’s truck, the only weapon troopers found was a small paring knife, sheathed and kept in an upper cupboard, buried under papers and supplies, the document adds.
Three Years Ago
Neilson asked the dispatcher to run a criminal history check on both drivers.
Sabirov’s record described a 2023 hit-and-run in which he was reported to have collided with another driver’s mirror without reporting it. His record also listed an April 16, 2022, incident in which he was reported to have stopped in the middle of Interstate 80, left his semitruck, and hit another semitruck driver in the forehead before driving away.
Law enforcement investigated that but ultimately let Sabirov go, the document says.
The Prosecutor
Neilson called Uinta County Attorney Loretta Howieson Kallas, and she said it sounded like Sabirov could be charged with aggravated assault, the affidavit says.
Neilson agreed, and said he’d recommend the reckless endangering charge as well.
At this time, Neilson noticed a camera mounted in the front window of Sabirov’s truck.
“He previously advised he did not have a camera,” the trooper noted in the affidavit.
His Side Of The Story
On the way to the jail, Sabirov asked Neilson questions, but Neilson had a hard time understanding those, he wrote.
Sabirov during his jail interview said N.M. had been driving around 90 mph, passing everyone and “mocking everybody” with his erratic driving, says the document.
When the pair left the interstate to have words, Sabirov noticed something black on the ground and picked it up to defend himself, he said.
N.M. ran at him, yelling, with his open hands in the air, Sabirov added, according to the affidavit.
The document relates that Sabirov also said N.M. threw rocks toward him and at his truck trailer.
Neilson confronted Sabirov about his dash camera, and the fact that it existed.
Sabirov said that was just a radar.
“It was clear Mr. Sabirov was not comfortable with the possibility of it being a camera,” wrote Neilson.
Sabirov then furnished a new claim: that N.M. had struck him in the face, says the affidavit.
The document says Sabirov said he was from Uzbekistan.
When he was booked into the jail, he weighed in at 238 pounds, and was marked as standing 6 feet tall, wrote Neilson. That, coupled with his professed mixed martial arts training, made it seem strange to Neilson that Sabirov would have had to pick up anything to defend himself against N.M.
N.M. stands 5-foot-9 and weighs 165 pounds, the trooper wrote.
“It did not appear to me that Mr. Sabirov would need any sort of weapon to defend himself against an open-handed attack from N.M.,” added Neilson.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
