https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Police-Troy-woman-lied-about-being-in-car-during-12992014.php
Police: Woman lied about being in car during road rage incident
Updated 6:41 pm, Wednesday, June 13, 2018
COLONIE — The Troy woman who claimed she and her son were chased down Route 7 and ran off the road last month wasn’t in the car when the confrontation occurred, authorities said Wednesday.
Natia Shim, 35, was charged with misdemeanor filing a false written statement after troopers learned she wasn’t involved in the road rage incident on May 10, State Police said.
The weeks-long investigation also brought misdemeanor reckless endangerment and menacing charges against 21-year-old Logan J. Tardiff of Halfmoon, police said.
Shim had spoken out publicly following the incident, claiming she and her son, Nace, were chased down Route 7 by a vehicle loaded with people and driven off the road. She claimed the people then leapt from the car and began slamming her vehicle with baseball bats and a frying pan screaming racist insults. The Shims are black.
“Ms. Shim made a written statement to us that she signed, indicating that she was in the car with her son, and we determined that to not be true,” said Maj. Robert Patnaude, Troop G commander. “This is not considered a hate crime. The statements that Ms. Shim made weren’t true because she wasn’t there.”
Shim’s son was in the car during the incident, but police wouldn’t say if he made any statements suggesting the confrontation was racially charged. Police also wouldn't say exactly where Natia Shim was during the incident, but confirmed she was in the area.
“It’s unfortunate because it caused a lot of angst in the community the statements she made,” said Patnaude, who called a news conference to address media inquiries about the case. “The African American community locally was upset, and rightfully so, but we determined that (those statements weren’t) true.”
The incident was sparked after the group thought the Shim’s car was involved in an earlier confrontation in Watervliet, Patnaude said. The suspects charged had initially called 911 while the confrontation was taking place, police said.
Initially police charged Watervliet residents Kristen Wright, 51, and Phillip Quandt Jr., 50, each with felony criminal mischief as well as reckless endangerment and menacing, both misdemeanors. Two days later, Lansingburgh resident Christopher Allen, 34, was charged with the same.
“All they should have done was call us, get a plate number and we would have tracked them down and seen if maybe they were involved in the Watervliet incident,” Patnaude said. “But they took matters into their own hands, and now four of them are facing charges for it.”
Watervliet police couldn’t immediately be reached Wednesday evening to comment.
