Paranoid man posed gun threat on westside roadway

By Joe Johnson

Martin Kurjian Baker, 59, of Florida Avenue, was arrested Tuesday afternoon after he reportedly pointed a gun at another motorist when driving on West Broad Street.

The 50-year-old victim told police that he was near the intersection of Milledge Avenue at about 1:30 p.m. when he saw a white man with a tattoo on his forehead waving a pistol at him from his car window, at which time he hit the gas and sped away to report the incident.

Personnel in the police department’s Real Time Crime Center accessed video of the incident as it happened and tracked Baker’s car to where he lives in the Parkview Homes complex.

When located at his apartment, Baker was asked about what had happened and he gave incoherent answers.

“I’ve been targeted by harassment for over a year by a lot of people,” he told police. “An organized group of people has been targeting me while I’m in my apartment and when I’m on the road.”

Those people particularly use vehicles with loud mufflers as a means of harassment and “they target him wherever he goes.”

Police took possession of Baker’s .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol and arrested him for aggravated assault,

On Thursday he continued to be held without bail in pretrial detention.