The man who rammed into the back of Irvine Doyle's truck repeatedly stabbed at his driver's-side window with a 6-inch blade knife, all the time yelling and ranting.
That's when Doyle saw another man approach with a gun, pointing it down toward the ground, telling the man with the knife to calm down.
"I said, 'Thank God somebody's here because the cops aren't here yet," Doyle recalled.
In an interview Friday, Doyle filled out the picture of the chaotic scene on Hwy. 65 near Medtronic Parkway on Wednesday after Simon Schiffler, 33, of Williston, N.D., set off a chain-reaction crash at a red light.
Schiffler, the man with the knife, was beyond erratic, Doyle said.
"I know he had alcohol on his breath. But he wasn't in his right mind," said Doyle, 57, of Ham Lake. "I don't think three or four people would have been able to hold him down. He was crazed."
The man with gun told Schiffler to relax, Doyle said. Instead, Schiffler charged, "his knife flailing," Doyle said.
Three shots rang out and Schiffler dropped to the ground, bleeding, Doyle said. Schiffler was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he died.