Truck drives into protesters on Minneapolis highway

[brooklynite]

Source: Reuters

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - A tanker truck drove through thousands of people marching on a Minneapolis highway to protest the death of George Floyd on Sunday before protesters dragged the driver from the cab and beat him, according to a Reuters witness and authorities.

It did not appear any of the marchers were injured when the truck raced towards them on I-35, blowing its horn, sending protesters scattering before coming to a stop, according to the witness and a tweet by the Minnesota Department of Public Security (MNDPS).


Police arrived soon after and arrested the truck driver, who was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, MNDPS said.

Video of the incident shows protesters swarming the vehicle before it comes to a stop.



Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-protests-truck-idUSKBN2370VQ

[John Fante]

1. One of Trump's fine people at the wheel.

[Maxheader]

12. I see a medal from the..

white house in the driver's future..A few words on twitter?

Visa card for 100 gallons of fuel..

[Polybius]

2. Here' the video

[onetexan]

13. That is a chemical tanker of some sort. If it caught on fire that would have been catastrophic.

[FailureToCommunicate]

15. Dramatic first person account. And trying to keep the trucker from being stomped to

death by the furious crowd.

[LiberalFighter]

3. What an idiot.

Even if they had not tore him out of the tanker he would had been caught.

[Warpy]

4. It didn't look all that deliberate

It looked like he was landing on the brakes as he saw all the people. Those things don't stop on a dime, yet, it did before it got to the bulk of the crowd.

A deliberate asshole using a tanker truck as a weapon wouldn't have braked.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. He sped up again after he slowed down.

One eyewitness who was among the protesters who pulled the guy out of the truck, told a reporter that the guy said he just wanted to intimidate the crowd but not hurt anyone. I don't know whether this has been verified.

[Warpy]

7. All I saw was the end

and it looked like he was standing on the brake.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. That probably would have been because the protesters had climbed onto the hood

and were pulling the door open.

[scarletwoman]

5. This happened hours ago, there have been updates since then.

It appears that it was mainly a matter of bad timing - the driver was apparently already on the bridge when the closure was announced.

The local news here recently played cell phone audio with the driver saying, "I didn't know! I didn't know!"

He may very well have been just confused and panicked.

More information will be forthcoming.

[rockfordfile]

9. I don't buy it "bad timing"

[TheFourthMind]

10. Per this Google street view I would think he could see a huge mass of people on the highway.

https://goo.gl/maps/KY4Zvztty4XABbzh8

And it was likely all over the CB radios that the people were there. That mass of people didn't just appear and I doubt his was the first truck to pass by them.

[James48]

11. He was a right-winger!

The website “Heavy” is reporting he was a small time cash donor to both Trump and the RNC. His name is Bogdan Vechirko.

See

https://heavy.com/news/2020/05/bogdan-vechirko/

[Bigredhunk]

14. :-)

F*ck you Bodgan! You and your eyebrows!!

[John Fante]

16. I'm not buying that the driver panicked either. I think he sped through

assuming that the protestors would clear out for him. When a women on a bike fell in front of his truck, that's when he hit the breaks.