ATLANTA -- The man accused stabbing a man to death a week ago in Atlanta in an apparent road rage incident made his first court appearance Tuesday.

The attorney for Zakar Ahmath Yasharahla told Channel 2 Action News reporter Carol Sbarge that the victim, 23-year-old Anthony Newberry, was actually the agressor in the incident.

The fugutive squad arrested Yasharahla Monday.

He is charged with murder in the death Newberry a week ago at Northside Drive at North Avenue in front of his wife and four-year-old daughter.

The suspect's attorney -- Noah Pines -- says his client, who works for a plumbing repair service, was acting in self-defense. He says Newberry confronted Yasharahla and that his client was defending himself.

Newberry was going to a friend's house. The family had planned to stay there overnight because his daughter was scheduled to have her tonsils out the next day.

A relative says Newberry noticed a white box van following too closely on Interstate 85. The family has speculated that Newberry tapped his brakes to make the man stop, which may have been what set the man off.