SYLMAR, LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Shocking cellphone video shows the moment a road rage altercation turned dangerous and a woman pulled out a machete in Sylmar.
“Oh, you’re going to skin me?” the driver who recorded the video said back to the woman after she made a threat.
The road rage incident happened on Saturday. Both people involved tell Eyewitness News the other was to blame, saying they were the victim of aggressive and highly offensive insults. Both people say they felt threatened.
“I don’t feel safe driving around here,” the driver told ABC7.
Eyewitness News spoke with the man who shot the video. He told us he fears for his safety and didn’t want to be seen on camera.
“For her saying that she’ll skin me? That’s when it turned into something where, this needs to be, this isn’t just road rage at this point, this is a direct threat,” he said.
This is not the first time this woman has been caught on camera in a road rage incident with a machete. Another cellphone video taken in Santa Clarita in February shows what appears to be the same woman in the same vehicle. Though in that video, all you see is the sheath, not the blade itself.
Eyewitness News got a statement from the woman, named Andrea, who also didn’t want to be on camera.
“Let me set the record straight, there is no good from my actions. I take accountability for the fact that I let emotions get the better of me in both incidents… All I ask is that people refrain from making quick judgments based on a few seconds of video that don’t reflect the full context of what actually happened,” she said. “It’s also frustrating that so much focus has been placed on the fact that I had a weapon with me. Yes, I did — and yes, I showed it — but only because I felt genuinely threatened.”
The LAPD Mission Division said it took a police report from the driver threatened in Saturday’s incident.
Law enforcement expert Bruce Thomas says this is a good example of what not to do in a situation like this if you feel threatened, even if you think you’re 100% in the right.
“She pulls a machete. What if this guy had a gun and says, ‘I was in fear of my life, therefore I shot her?'” Thomas said.
“The biggest thing is, you have a cellphone, dial 911,” he advised. “For you to take independent action like that, it is just a mistake.”
Copyright © 2025 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.
