Accused of endangering another Interstate 80 driver and a toddler by shooting at their pickup during a road rage incident Thursday near Rawlins, a 59-year-old trucker from Florida could face life in prison.
Carbon County Attorney Sarah Chavez Harkins charged Rabindranath Bunsee on Monday with one count of attempted second-degree murder, two counts of aggravated assault, one count of reckless driving, two counts of reckless endangerment, one count of property destruction, and an eighth count of using a radar detector.
Bunsee lives in Florida and works as a commercial truck driver. He’s in custody in the Carbon County Detention Center on a $100,000 cash-only bond, court documents say.
He’s set for a Dec. 3 preliminary hearing, where he’ll have the chance to dispute the state’s claim that it has probable cause to keep prosecuting him for the felonies he faces.
Bunsee and his alleged victim gave differing accounts of what unfolded on the interstate Thursday afternoon.
Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Cody Lenke documented both accounts in an evidentiary affidavit, which was filed Monday in Rawlins Circuit Court.
Shots Fired
Lenke received a call to respond to a report of a man with a gun. The reporting party, Scott Schaffer, said shots had been fired from a white tractor trailer at about mile marker 234 on Interstate 80.
Lenke and another trooper started driving that way when dispatch told Lenke the reporting party took the 221 exit.
The second trooper kept looking for the truck, while Lenke took the exit to talk with the reporting party.
Pulling into the Stinker gas station just off I-80, Lenke saw a white Ram pickup and a Ford SUV parked, bearing Texas plates. He contacted the drivers, who were traveling together.
The man was driving the pickup, says the affidavit, and his wife was driving the SUV.
Lenke saw a bullet hole in the pickup's passenger side door, and Schaffer noted that he had his toddler in the back of the truck, the document says.
The trooper asked the drivers for more descriptors of the semitrailer.
They said the driver had a brown skin tone, they saw some high-visibility clothes either on him or in the cab; and the trailer said “Vanguard" in small lettering on the back door, the affidavit relates.
Lenke told the driver to head into Rawlins, and said a trooper would be with them shortly.
Road Rage, As Described
Schaffer and the other driver did so, and met with Wyoming Highway Patrol Lt. Tyler Chapman.
Chapman learned that Schaffer was driving in front of his wife when the incident unfolded.
In his rear-view mirror, Schaffer reported that he saw the tractor trailer go into the passing lane and almost hit his wife’s SUV, the affidavit says.
The wife went off the road, the document relates from that interview.
Schaffer called his wife while he pulled into the drive lane in front of a different semitruck. He told his wife to get past the suspect’s vehicle, Schaffer told investigators.
As the suspect’s truck passed Schaffer, it swerved at him, driving him off the road, where he narrowly missed a delineator post, the affidavit says.
Schaffer went to pass the truck — and he saw a black gun, the document continues.
The affidavit says Schaffer knew it wasn’t a revolver. He suspected it may be a 9 mm, in the driver’s hand, protruding from the window.
“Mr. Schaffer then heard the gunshot and the bullet hit his vehicle and (he) was instantly scared for his life and the life of his 2-year-old daughter,” the document says, adding that he also heard the bullet hit his pickup.
Schaffer “took off immediately and called the police,” wrote Lenke.
Schaffer knew he hadn’t been shot; he turned to see if his daughter had been hit, the document says.
“It was not until she started moving that he realized she was not hit,” Lenke wrote. “He sped away as fast as possible to get away.”
The Hunt
Lenke alerted other agencies of the truck description and began to search for it himself.
At about mile marker 198, Lenke wrote, he saw a tractor trailer matching Schaffer’s description — both white, with “Vanguard” on the lower lefthand corner of the trailer door, a male matching the description of the driver and a high-visibility item showing in his mirror.
“I waited until a Carbon County (Sheriff’s Office) Deputy got close to my location before making contact,” Lenke added.
When Carbon County Sheriff’s Sgt. Christopher Fischer drew near to the scene, Lenke initiated a high-risk traffic stop on the truck. It stopped in the truck parking at mile marker 190, the document says.
“We ordered the driver out of the vehicle and he wasn’t initially complying,” wrote Lenke, adding that the driver, later identified as Bunsee, “finally exited” and Lenke detained him.
As Lenke patted the man down for weapons, Bunsee said he holds a conceal carry permit, the trooper wrote.
Once Bunsee was placed in Lenke’s patrol car, he said he understood his Miranda rightsand asked for his company lawyer, the affidavit adds.
In the truck, Lenke wrote, investigators found a black semiautomatic-style handgun with two rounds missing from the magazine. The style of gun matched the alleged victim’s description.
Bunsee was arrested.
Investigators seized a dash camera and Bunsee’s cellphone.
Interviews
Lenke and Wyoming Highway Patrol Lt. Caleb Hobbs talked with Bunsee, who gave a different account of the road-rage incident.
Bunsee reportedly said the pickup and the car ran him off the road, into the ditch; and once he got his truck under control he parked on the shoulder for about 20 minutes, and that was the end of the interaction.
As for the gun, Bunsee said he forgot it was in the truck, and that he’d gone to the range before he left home and left it in the cubby where investigators found it, the affidavit relates.
The document says Bunsee insisted both the gun’s magazines were full. He denied touching the gun, Lenke wrote from that interview.
At the sheriff’s office, Division of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Eric Ford interviewed Bunsee.
Lenke was also at that interview, the affidavit says.
Bunsee said he was a driver for L and G Logistics of Chicago, Illinois. He’d been driving for 33 years, had lived at his Florida address for 30 years, and had lived in the United States since he was 10, he said.
Bunsee said he’d never been to Wyoming before this investigation.
He's a heart patient and a diabetic, the affidavit relates from his interview, adding that he said his medications were in his truck.
He said his recent haul started in Virginia with a load of wood blocks headed for Utah.
While he drove west on I-80, a truck moved very slowly, so Bunsee decided to overtake it, he said. As he passed the truck, Bunsee said his own speed “dropped down."
Three vehicles behind him were “flashing their lights” at him even as his own speed dropped lower and lower, the document relates.
Bunsee’s truck slowed to about 55 mph.
Two vehicles with Texas plates followed him.
Suddenly, “a guy” swerved into Bunsee’s lane like he was going to hit Bunsee, the trucker continued, noting that his own truck was very heavy.
Bunsee said he went off the road and almost flipped over as two vehicles “went by.”
He said he believed the incident was recorded on his video camera.
He said his truck “just didn’t want to go up the hill.”
He stopped on the side of the road for about 20 minutes, caught his breath and continued his trip, the affidavit says.
Why This
Ford asked Bunsee why he fired a gun at the truck.
“I didn’t fire a gun sir,” answered Bunsee. “Like I said, the guy tried to run me off the road and tried to kill me. I didn’t shoot anybody. I didn’t shoot anybody with kids in the car.
“Why this guy’s driving reckless, I don’t see him in this office. You’re supposed to arrest him.”
Bunsee told Ford he needed to call his lawyer because he “didn’t shoot anybody” and didn’t understand why he’d been arrested.
Misfire, Maybe
When Chapman did a more thorough search of Bunsee’s truck, he noticed a .380-caliber bullet on the pavement near the truck, an area that would have been concealed under another, uninvolved parked truck, the document says.
The bullet had a dent in the casing, indicating it might have been involved in a misfire, Lenke wrote.
The document says Hobbs also found a radar detector in the front top center compartment of the truck.
The bullet hole in the lower area of the passenger door of Schaffer’s truck was consistent with the gun found in Bunsee’s truck, the affidavit says.
The Tally
The attempted murder charge carries a penalty of between 20 years and life in prison and $10,000 in fines.
Each aggravated assault is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines.
Reckless driving is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and $750.
Reckless endangerment is punishable by up to one year in jail.
Misdemeanor property destruction is punishable by up to six months in jail and $750 in fines.
Using a radar detector in a commercial vehicle is punishable by up to six months in jail and $750 in fines.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
