Tesla suspect on the road allegedly threatened to kill girlfriend and her family – Orange County Register

The Tesla driver, who is suspected of attacking motorists with a metal pipe, had previously terrorized a Long Beach woman he was dating and threatened to kill her, according to court records.

In a 15-page domestic violence injunction petition filed in Los Angeles Superior Court last year, the 41-year-old woman, Nathaniel Radimak, 36, said she beat and choked and vowed to end her family in a series of violent encounters from 2019 to 2022.

“He threatened to use (a) wrench tool to hit my head,” she wrote in the request. “Threatened to buy a four fingered fist ring to hit me with. He says my body will float to the bottom of the ocean and dissolve.”

Radimak was arrested Sunday, January 29, at a Torrance car wash after giving a tip to the California Highway Patrol.

Radimak faces four counts of criminal threats and assault and one count of vandalism. He also faces two counts of vandalism and one count of elder abuse.

He pleaded not guilty on Tuesday and is expected to return to court for a preliminary hearing on February 14.

“The victims in this case were quite shocked by what they witnessed, but that reign of terror ends today,” District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement Tuesday. “Los Angeles drivers shouldn’t have to live in fear of being attacked while just driving on the freeway. Our office will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to determine if this individual has committed similar acts against individuals in Los Angeles County and elsewhere.”

Radimak, suspected of driving a black 2022 Tesla Model X, is accused of using a pipe to hit a motorist’s car on the 2 Freeway near York Boulevard in Los Angeles on January 11.

Later that day, Radimak reportedly followed a couple out of a Pasadena mall and nearly hit their car with his vehicle. He is also said to have hit their vehicle with a metal bar.

On November 9, 2022, Radimak reportedly threatened to attack a woman at a camp in Atwater Village. Later that day, he allegedly got out of his vehicle, threatened another woman on a freeway, and broke one of her headlights.

Last June, Radimak reportedly threatened to attack a 74-year-old woman outside a doctor’s office in Glendale.

Radimak has a pending case alleging that he assaulted another driver in a Hollywood street riot incident in January 2020, the Los Angeles County Attorney’s Office said on Tuesday.

When his car was searched after the incident, he reportedly had steroids and more than $30,000 in cash. In that case, he’s charged with selling a controlled substance on a possession crime and a battery misdemeanor.

The woman who applied for a restraining order against Radimaks said she too encountered his anger while traveling with him in a vehicle.

She claims he drove her to a supermarket on September 5, 2019, where he sat in a parking lot waiting to hit someone with a tire tool. However, nothing happened and he allegedly drove away recklessly, dodging back and forth and blaming the woman for his bad behavior.

Later that same day, while she and Radimak were at her boyfriend’s wedding rehearsal, he reportedly became aggressive again. “He was in my face screaming and cursing and he slapped my face,” the woman said. “He threatened to ruin the wedding and beat everyone up. I couldn’t let that happen, so I stayed calm and tried to calm him down.”

In another episode from 2019, the woman said Radimak got angry, tried to choke her and pushed her against a wall. She wrote in the request for the restraining order that he, also posing as her husband, called an airline and canceled her flight to Hawaii for the next morning.

“He stormed out of the apartment cursing me and how he was going to finish me off,” she said.

On February 19, 2022, Radimak allegedly created email accounts to further threaten and scare the woman. “Emails were sent to several created accounts with my name on, saying I should be dead before he comes after me, I’ll be shot on approach, he’s tracking my movements, (and) I’ll be on the stabbed at first sight,” said the woman.

In another violent encounter on February 3, 2020, Radimak reportedly choked the woman and stuck her head in a refrigerator, causing her to lose consciousness.

“I woke up shaking on the floor, my eyes blurry and dark,” she said. “I tried calling 9-1-1 but I didn’t have the strength to press the SOS buttons and I couldn’t unlock the phone.”

In the most recent incident, on March 25, 2022, Radimak allegedly sent chilling texts telling the woman – who had moved to another apartment – that she could not hide from him. “He told me to end my life first,” she wrote.

The woman’s application for a restraining order was denied in April 2022 because she failed to appear at a court hearing.

Staff writer Ruby Gonzales contributed to this report.