Man pulls gun in road rage incident

PETALUMA — Furious that he was cut off by a driver pulling out of a driveway, a Petaluma man reportedly followed the driver to a nearby restaurant last week and threatened him with a gun.

Police say a man later identified as Adam Benfarhat, 22, of Petaluma followed the driver down the 700 block of East Washington Street in Petaluma until the driver pulled into a restaurant parking lot around 4:30 p.m. June 7.

The suspect got out of his car, argued with the driver and then retrieved a handgun from his car. Pointing the gun, he spit on the victim and then took off in his car.

The victim called Petaluma police and reported Benfarhat’s license plate number.

An officer responding to the call spotted the suspect driving at a high rate of speed away from the scene. The officer activated his emergency lights and sirens and attempted to conduct a traffic stop, but the suspect ignored the officer’s requests to pull over and  continued to drive at a high rate of speed. Because of his reckless driving, the officer was unable to stop the suspect, said Sgt. Andrew Urton.

However, the officer pulled up the suspect’s home address linked to the vehicle’s license plate number, and found Benfarhat parked a half block from his home in the 500 block of Laurel Street.

The victim positively identified Benfarhat as the suspect. A handgun with ammunition was located in the trunk of Benfarhat’s vehicle. Benfarhat was arrested and booked at Sonoma County jail with a bail of $50,000 and charged with assault with a deadly weapon, battery and evading a police officer.