This is a terrible story. The only good part about it is that no one was physically hurt. Denise Richards and her husband, Aaron Phypers, were driving to a studio for Denise to film something last Monday when they noticed a van aggressively tailgating them. When the driver pulled alongside their truck, Aaron rolled the window down to see what the driver’s deal was. The other guy claimed Aaron cut him off. Aaron apologized but the guy wouldn’t back down. So Aaron drove off. But when Denise and Aaron arrived at the studio, they saw the guy had actually shot their truck.
Denise Richards is “very shaken up” after her vehicle was shot at during a road rage incident in Los Angeles, PEOPLE confirms.
The 51-year-old actress and her husband Aaron Phypers were driving to Popsicle Studio in Los Angeles, where Richards was filming for an upcoming project, when the scary shooting incident happened on Monday.
According to the source, Richards was riding in the passenger seat of their Ford F-150 Shelby pick-up truck while Phypers, 50, was behind the wheel.
As the couple headed to the one-day movie shoot in South Los Angeles, Phypers noticed that a gold and maroon van was following them. “[Aaron] could tell — he kept making rights because they were clearly being followed,” the source says. “The guy was obviously pissed behind him.”
“The van was on his tail, pushing him almost… they couldn’t figure it out,” the source continues, noting that Richards and Phypers were both “frantic” over the situation.
Eventually, the van pulled up to their left and Phypers rolled down his window to confront the driver. During their exchange, the source says the man “went off of them” and claimed Phypers cut him off.
Though Phypers apologized, the man continued to yell at them so Phypers drove off, according to the source. It wasn’t until the couple got to set that they realized the man had shot the back of their truck. Thankfully, nobody was injured in the incident.
“The guy had taken off by then, but when they realized the car was shot, they were really freaked out, and the production secured the scene,” the source says. “Even though they were upset, [Richards] decided to stay and film. Her role was just a one-day deal.”
“The production company made her feel safe but they didn’t file a police report,” the source adds. “They think now that people were after the car itself because it’s worth a lot of money.”
I don’t think the van driver was after their truck. This type of thing happens all the time in LA. People get irrationally angry on the roads and absolutely have to make the person they’re mad at ‘pay’. Half the time you didn’t know you did something wrong or didn’t mean to. Two drivers will endanger an entire freeway of drivers just to get back at each other. We call it Gotcha Last and alert whoever’s driving if we see it going on because that’s how you end up in a ditch as an innocent bystander. Aaron was right to drive off, nothing was going to calm that guy down and obviously meant to use the gun he had on him – thank gawd it was only the truck that got harmed.
And while almost anyone who lives in LA has had a similar experience, minus the bullet hole – OMG!, we don’t have to deal with the second half of this story. So word got out about the incident. And people have opinions about Denise. Those things should not be mutually exclusive, but social media brings out the worst. Some troll tweeted, as in publicly put it out there, that they wished the bullet had grazed Denise’s neck instead.
In a since-deleted tweet from Tuesday, November 15, the commentator replied to news that Richards and husband Aaron Phypers‘ car was shot at, writing, “Don’t care kinda hope she would have taken a grazing shot to the neck honestly.”
Richards, 51, for her part, addressed the public hate, tweeting, “Thank you. I would never wish any harm on anyone. What I experienced yesterday with my husband, not that you care. Was the most terrifying situation I have ever been in. I’m sorry a shot didn’t graze my neck … a—hole.”
Again, I have no doubt that Denise and Aaron were definitely “shaken up” and calling the incident “terrifying” is not an exaggeration. Who reads a story about people being terrorized like this and posts they wish the two had been tortured more? Denise and Aaron were driving a truck, that’s it. At worst, they cut someone off and it sounds unintentionally. I’m glad they are both safe. If neither the van driver or the tweeter are brought to justice, I hope they sit on chairs with wet seat cushions while a bird poops on their heads. Shame on them.
Photo credit: JPI Studios/Avalon, Getty Images and Instagram
People think being mean unprovoked makes them cool. If you don’t have anything nice to say just say quiet.
Glad they’re OK.
So glad they are OK. We have seen some crazy driving lately and I have to remember not to get annoyed because one never knows what may trigger a person or if the person just wants to do harm. As far as the hate tweet, people suck. We are seeing more and more of who people really are and how ugly humans can be. We do so much to make ourselves attractive on the outside and have forgotten to cultivate the inside.
God people are so much much more visceral with their hate comments about women. Glad they’re ok.
That could have gone seriously wrong, and Denise’s experience is incredibly shocking to read. I’m glad that she and her husband are physically okay, and I hope they can get help for their trauma. I wish, like with Frankie Grande’s assailants in yesterday’s article, the psycho road rager had been caught.
What is WITH that multi-colored dress?! Super ugly and also age inappropriate for someone pushing 50, instead of 15.
Jeez, it’s a cute dress with cowboy boots, pretty sure that’s acceptable into adulthood? And she looks about 35 there (I say that as a 36 year old).
Why attack her appearance on an article about her being shot at? Would you still just HAD to have made the comment if she actually had been shot? What about if she died? Jeez.
Seriously. Read the room!
As Woke said above, if you don’t have anything nice to say, just stay quiet. Your ad hominem attack on Denise Richards only says something negative about you.
Glad no one was hurt, that had to be scary. People have gotten NUTS driving.
I thought I was being followed once, very close to my house, so I didn’t go home but instead went in a big circle, pulled into parking lot and went out the other side, etc. The truck followed through there, which was really suspicious, but then left. If they’d kept following, I’d have driven to the police station.
Aaron is a known hothead. These events rarely occur without 2 people. I doubt the truck was completely unprovoked by Aaron. That said I am very glad noone was injured.
That is not true these one sided intimates happen all the time .
It doesn’t matter how much of a hothead he is. it excuses no one pulling out a gun and shooting a someone unless its for true self-defense. The fact it hit the vehicle doesn’t matter. we don’t know if they meant to hit the vehicle or the people inside.
Either way a gun owner is responsible for their weapon, no one else. They are responsible for their weapon at all times and whatever that weapon does while in their possession. If they can’t handle it, they shouldn’t have one.
Her husband reminds me of what Tommy Lee would look like if he stopped doing so many drugs. And hit the weight room.
I live in LA and I do indeed have a similar story (minus the bullets and shooting). Be safe out there, friends!
kind of sad in our country you just never know who has a gun and will kill you over the dumbest thing.
Ugh, this reminds me of that poor little boy who was shot on the freeway in LA over a road rage thing. They are so lucky they weren’t hurt. The shooter is a danger to everyone.
There was a road rage incident in Texas recently where a dude’s 5 year old daughter was shot by another motorist and instead of stopping the car or driving to a hospital, the dude continued to chase after the guy and then shot HIS 15-year-old daughter. After that, they STILL didn’t go to the hospital or attend to their daughters’ wounds, but instead got out of their cars and started fighting. Toxic masculinity and guns are gonna kill us all, man.
EDITED: Meant to add that both children survived their wounds and the dads both went to jail.
Terrifying! Glad they’re okay.
Why do I think this might be a publicity stunt?
The thing about maybe the other driver wanted their truck??? Huh? Why would the other driver shoot the car if he wanted to steal it?