Iowa man charged with allegedly brandishing a gun during road rage incident
Jun. 16—A Forest City, Iowa man is currently in custody in Mower County Jail after being charged with weapons related charges linked to a road rage incident last week.
Sixty-five year old Howard Michael Nielsen has been charged with two felony counts of second degree assault with a dangerous weapon, a felony for illegal possession of a suppressor and gross misdemeanor carrying a pistol without a permit.
Nielsen made his first appearance Monday in Mower County District Court and is currently being held in the Mower County Jail on $100,000 bail/bond with no conditions or $10,000 with conditions.
According to the court complaint, a Minnesota State Patrol trooper was dispatched for a report of a road rage incident at around 10:13 a.m. on June 13 involving the alleged demonstration of a long black gun near the Elkton exit at milepost 189 in Interstate 90.
Just under 10 minutes later, at around 10:25 a.m., the trooper spotted the suspect semi-truck, driven by Nielsen, on I-90 and instigated a traffic stop. During the stop, troopers discovered a .45 pistol with an eight to nine inch black Sig Sauer Mod-X suppressor attached to the barrel.
According to the complaint, Nielsen initially denied having an incident with anybody and when asked said he wouldn't know why somebody would report him for having a gun, but did agree that the only way it could be is if he had showed it.
Nielsen then allegedly demonstrated for a trooper how he had shown the gun — barrel to the driver's side window and pushing it close to the windshield — but also complained that the victim in the case hadn't been driving the speed limit, slowing down to 50 mph and hitting their brakes.
When asked if he showed the gun because the victim was going slow, Nielson allegedly responded by saying, "yeah."
Nielson then produced a conceal and carry permit out of Iowa, but Minnesota doesn't have reciprocity with Iowa for the permits. Nielson also failed to show documentation related to the suppressor.
When questioned, the victim in the case claimed he had been going 65 mph when a truck had come up on his vehicle "very fast and began following him closely, estimating a car and a half distance between them."
The victim then said that he thought a laser pointer was coming from Nielson's truck and the victim slowed at which time Nielson allegedly began honking at him.
He then sped up to 55 to gain some distance between the vehicle when he allegedly saw Nielson's arm come out of the window with the gun pointed up and then leveled it toward the victim's vehicle.
A passenger in the car, who said she hadn't been paying that much attention, told a trooper that the driver told her to get down and that "I think he's got a gun."
Nielsen's next court date is an initial appearance on June 30.
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