SAN JOSE, Calif. — A man was stabbed several times outside his car as his 5-year-old child sat in the back seat in an apparent incident of road rage in Northern California.

The man who was arrested is asserting self-defense, police said.

San Jose police spokesman Sgt. Enrique Garcia said the injured man, a 36-year-old San Jose resident, was rushed to the hospital and is expected to survive.

Travis David Painter, also of San Jose, was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.

Painter told the San Jose Mercury News he acted in self-defense.

The incident happened Thursday in a quiet residential neighborhood after the unidentified driver followed Painter to his home.

The men got into a fight and Painter pulled out a knife and stabbed the other man, who staggered back to his car, where his 5-year-old son was still sitting, Garcia said. The child was not harmed.

Painter, who was freed on bail, told the Mercury News that minutes before the fight the unidentified man cut him off on the road, then rolled down his window and signaled for him to pull over but he didn’t and the man followed him home.

“By the time I turned my car off, he walked onto the grass and went to my car door. He pushed me against my car and struck me in the face. We started to brawl because I needed to protect myself,” he said.

Painter, who contends he suffered a black eye, cuts and scrapes, said he pulled out a folding knife to fend off his attacker and added that he did not know the man’s child was in the car.

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