A Brooklyn man’s harassment campaign against his ex and her current lover came to a bloody end in a wild road-rage incident today, authorities and witnesses said.
Kai Gates, 34, was tailing his ex and her boyfriend — who are both Rikers Island correction officers — when the confrontation erupted on a busy East Flatbush street.
Gates ended up shot by Dale Moore, 31, who’d been on the receiving end of Gates’ harassment, sources said.
Gates was fighting for his life last night in Kings County Hospital. Moore was in police custody. It was unclear whether he would be charged, law enforcement sources said.
The incident unfolded at 1:10 p.m. as Moore was driving his Mercedes Benz on Clarendon Road near Utica Avenue with his girlfriend, correction captain Shalonda Smith, 36, in the passenger seat.
Smith and Moore are assigned to the same unit at Rikers Island.
Gates, in a large black Cadillac SUV, drove up behind Moore’s Mercedes — and then pulled in front, cutting him off, said police sources.
Moore’s Mercedes then “tapped” the rear bumper of Gates’ SUV, said a witness, a city Department of Transportation worker who driving a marked DOT car behind them.
“The the guy in the black SUV [Gates] gets out … He stepped out with his hands up, yelling ‘What’s up?’ ” recounted the DOT worker, who did not give his name.
A law enforcement source said that Moore yelled to Gates: “Don’t come any closer.” But Gates continued to approach, said the source, leading Moore to shoot him twice.
As Gates staggered from his wounds, his ex-girlfriend Smith ran to his aid. “She held him up for a second,” the DOT worker said. “Then he took her down with him. She was holding him as he collapsed between the cars.
“She had blood all over the hands and at first I thought she was shot too,” said the DOT worker, who was on duty and driving in Brooklyn with a colleague.
Police sources said that Gates had fathered a child with Smith.
In a bankruptcy petition filed two years ago, Gates listed his occupation as bus driver.