A 32-year-old man was arrested after he admitted crashing his girlfriend's car on purpose while she was driving with his 7-year-old son strapped into a child safety seat.

Raymond Morris Patterson, 32, was charged with reckless driving to endanger and misdemeanor child abuse/endangerment. He is in the Catawba County jail this morning under a $1,200 secured bond.

According to the Hickory Daily Record, police came across a 2004 Cadillac Seville after it had crashed into a telephone poll on 6th St., NW.

Patterson said a dog had jumped in front of the car and his girlfriend hit the telephone pole when she swerved to miss it.

But when the officer asked Patterson's girlfriend what happened, she said they were headed to the gym when Patterson asked her to pick up his gym shoes. When she refused, they argued and Patterson said he was going to wreck her car and total it, according to the newspaper.

Patterson reached across her and snatched the steering wheel. He shoved it to the left, forcing the Cadillac into a 180-degree turn that stopped when the car hit a telephone pole in the dead center of the car’s front bumper.

The officer asked Patterson if the story was true, and he called his decision to wreck the car with his girlfriend and son inside a “stupid mistake," according to police.

It was the second time someone had been accused of road rage in the Charlotte region.

On Tuesday, Terry McConico, who's worked with the sheriff's office for 13 years, was charged in connection with shooting at a silver Jeep Cherokee that had rear-ended the car he was in.

McConico was issued a criminal summons to appear in court for shooting a firearm in the city limits. He's also charged with an infraction for failure to disclose to a police officer that he was carrying a concealed weapon and had a permit for it.

The Sheriff's office is conducting its own investigation, and McConico could lose his job.