Kai, the hatchet hitchhiker: the frightening detail that could have caused the accident

In February 2013, a video is on youtube and attracts the attention of Internet users. Now viewed more than 7 million times, it presents Kai, a young man who recounts his instrumental role in what appeared to be a simple road accident. Tuesday January 10, 2023, Netflix unveils a documentary entitled Kai, the hatchet hitchhiker. We learn that the accident was caused by a man named Jett Simmons McBride. According to Kai (real name Caleb McGillivary), who had gotten into his car while hitchhiking, the man allegedly ran into a utility truck while uttering racist slurs. He would then get out of his car to attack Tanya Baker, a passerby who came to help the only victim of the collision. Taken with rage, Kai steps in and hits Jett McBride three times with a hatchet, one of which with the sharp side. From that moment, the 25-year-old young man at the time became an Internet celebrity. What if he hadn’t deserved this status?

“Did he really save the day? Or did he cause it?”

In the Netflix documentary, the various interlocutors question the merits of Kai’s gesture. “Did he really save the day? Or did he cause it”, asks a police officer from the city of Fresno, in charge of the case. When he appears at Jett McBride’s trial as the main witness, Kai adds a detail following the events that led to the crash. He reveals he smoked with the driver while they were on the road. The latter will confirm the statements of his passenger and will add “that Kai told him they were ghosts and could go through the truck in front of him”. “He is not entirely innocent in this story, even if he passes for a hero”, insists the police officer. However, Kai will come out of it without the slightest scratch from this story which propelled him to the rank of mini-celebrity on the web. And for good reason, the surfing and marijuana-savvy young man omitted an important point when he testified under oath to the court…

Kai, “he’s an arsonist firefighter”

“I was horrified. He had just confessed to something really serious”. Gabriel Francisco, lead singer of The Red Coats, remembers meeting Kai. At the time, she was offered to collaborate with the Internet hero for a concert. By need of notoriety, he accepts. But he remembers a surreal conversation he had with him during the event. While proudly recounting that he saved a woman’s life by hitting a driver with a hatchet, Kai added a detail. “I went up with him, passed him a joint and he didn’t manage. What he didn’t know was that I had added other substances in the joint“he would have told the singer. “He then listed me all a list of drugs which I had never heard of”, is surprised Gabriel Francisco. Far from considering his interlocutor as a hero, he adds: “He had drugged this guy. He is an arsonist firefighter. He had lit the fire and then put it out and passed for a hero”. Since Jett McBride was only tested for the presence of marijuana in his system, this claim could never be proven. But if it were true? If Kai had really caused this incident? In the video that made him famous, the young man boasts of having resorted to violence to save a life. Should this be seen as one of the warning signs of the drama to come? May be.