By: Shawn Vincent

A motorist shot and killed an attacker after an apparent road rage incident in Allentown, Pennsylvania on July 6, 2025. According to reporting from Action 6 news, a 35-year-old named Tamir Johnson was driving an Audi and overtook the defender’s Prius. Police told reporters they believed Johnson was the aggressor. 

“Johnson then allegedly forced the Prius to the curb,” the report continues, “got out of his vehicle while carrying a baseball bat, and then reportedly struck the driver-side door of the Prius with that bat.” The defender in the Prius, a licensed carrier, drew his pistol and fired a single fatal round. Then he drove about two blocks, pulled over, and called the police. 

By July 23rd, the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office ruled the shooting was self-defense and announced they would not be filing charges. They didn’t release the name of the defender. 

There is plenty we don’t know about this incident—particularly what triggered Tamir Johnson’s aggressive assault—but it seems clear law enforcement approached this case as a self-defense shooting from the beginning. A three-to-four-week investigation is on par with what we’ve seen in clear-cut self-defense shootings.

In many of the high-profile self-defense shootings we explore, we focus on mistakes the defender made that complicated their legal defense. In this case, we have the opportunity to focus on what the defender did right.

We’ve compiled a list of 36 Self-Defense Lessons for Armed Defenders. Here are some of the lessons illustrated by the case of the Allentown Road Rage Defender:

The goal of self-defense is to break contact (Lesson 1)

In many of the road rage cases we’ve explored, we see a tit-for-tat exchange between the drivers, which escalates, resulting in the drivers confronting one another. While we have scant details in the Allentown case, it seems Johnson targeted the defender and forced his car to the side of the road. As a result, it may have been difficult for the defender to simply drive away, leaving him effectively trapped and vulnerable in his car. If that is the case, he likely didn’t have many non-violent options left for breaking contact with his violent attacker.

 

The threat must be imminent and serious (Lesson 4)

An able-bodied 35-year-old wielding a baseball bat has the clear ability to cause great bodily harm or death. The report said the attacker “struck the driver-side door of the Prius with that bat.” If Johnson had managed to shatter the window, the defender inside the car would have been prone and vulnerable to receive the next blow, which could have killed him or rendered him unconscious. One could argue that, until Johnson physically broke through the window, the driver didn’t face a truly imminent threat. While technically true, the defender likely received some grace because the attacker demonstrated clearly violent intentions.

 

The belief of imminent harm or death must be reasonable (Lesson 5)

If anyone ever overtakes your vehicle and forces you to the curb, it is unlikely they are just trying to ask for directions or let you know your taillight is out. In all of his actions, Johnson made it clear he intended to commit a violent crime. In a self-defense case, much of the assessment depends on whether an objective third party finds the defender’s actions reasonable. Often, the defender’s actions are compared to the attacker’s.  In the Allentown case, Johnson behaved extremely unreasonably, while the defender responded with measured rationality.  

 

Don’t get emotionally hijacked (Lesson 8)

Considering how quickly the encounter escalated and the extreme aggression demonstrated by the attacker, it would be understandable if the defender emptied his magazine in a moment of panic. But the defender didn’t panic—he fired one single fatal shot that ended the attack. He didn’t shoot before the threat was imminent (Lesson 6), and he didn’t shoot after the threat was over (Lesson 7). His restraint almost certainly factored into the investigators’ assessment of the defender’s motives, contributing to his exoneration. 

 

Don’t be the first aggressor (Lesson 10)

Authorities apparently believed Johnson was the first aggressor early in the investigation. If you are considered the first aggressor, you may forfeit your legal ability to claim self-defense. We explored a similar case in Lapeer, Michigan, where a driver shot a man who was attacking him with a crowbar, which is arguably deadlier than a baseball bat. A critical difference in the Lapeer case was that the defender initiated the encounter by returning to the parking lot after an initial road rage incident—making the mistake of provoking a potential aggressor (Lesson 11). While the Allentown defender was exonerated, the Lapeer defender is in prison. 

 

Call 911 (Lesson 30)

We’ll never know what the defender said on his 911 call, but we do know that, immediately following the shooting, he drove a minimally safe distance from the encounter (about two blocks) and called authorities to report the shooting. We’ve explored cases where defenders have driven home (sometimes hundreds of miles away, as in the Michael Dunn case) before contacting authorities, and the time and distance between the shooting and the reporting give investigators reason to be suspicious.    

 

The Allentown road rage defender kept his cool throughout the entire incident. We have no evidence that he intentionally provoked the attacker. We have no evidence that he did anything to escalate the encounter. The defender did not stop voluntarily to confront the aggressor. Instead, he was forced to the side of the road, where we assume he became trapped. With the attacker demonstrating clear violent intentions and the ability to execute, the defender fired one decisive shot, moved to a safe location a short distance away, and called 911.

 

Every self-defense case is different, and there is no blueprint on how to handle every situation, but the Allentown road rage defenders show us that if you do nothing to provoke the attack, if make an effort to escape the confrontation, if you use force only when the threat is clear and imminent, if you use only the force necessary to stop the attack, and if you quickly report the shooting, then you give yourself a solid foundation for a self-defense claim.