A man drove his car into a crowd of protesters in Seattle on Sunday, then shot and wounded a demonstrator who confronted him as he came to a stop, according to police and eyewitness video.
Seattle police said firefighters took the man who was shot to the hospital and that he was in stable condition. No one else was injured, police said.
The suspect was seen in the video exiting his car as protesters began to surround it at about 8.30pm local time near the Seattle police department’s east precinct. He brandished what appeared to be a gun, dashed through the crowd and turned himself over to police.
The incident was in contrast to the mostly peaceful weekend protests sparked by the death of George Floyd last month while in Minneapolis police custody.
The injured protester, named as Daniel, 26, lifted his fist in the air as medics walked him off the scene. He said he had punched the man in the car in an attempt to disarm him after he drove into the crowd of demonstrators.
“I see a car run down [the street] … I catch him. I punch him in the face. I hear the gunshot go off in my arm – and I move right in time,” he said. “My whole thing was to protect those people.”
Story unclear at the moment but young man shot on 11th and Pine. Daniel, 26, wanted to tell his story. With the help of other medics I got a tourniquet on his arm. Street medics were on the spot with gauze and pressure. He walked off the scene. pic.twitter.com/g9Ism58YkF
— Alex Garland (@AGarlandPhoto) June 8, 2020
Streets in countless cities and towns across America filled with demonstrators again on Sunday as largely peaceful protests over systemic racism and police brutality, sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, headed towards a third week.
Rallies swelled as some cities lifted the evening curfews and withdrew national guard support, and protesters claimed a landmark victory as a veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis city council pledged to dismantle the city’s troubled police force.
The scenes were markedly different from the previous weekend, which saw police beating back protesters with teargas and batons, and a non-violent gathering in a Washington DC park on Monday forcibly cleared in military-style assault ahead of a photo opportunity for Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, the body of Floyd, 46, whose killing on Memorial Day when a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes was captured on a now infamous video, arrived in his home town of Houston on Sunday for a public viewing on Monday, and a private funeral on Tuesday.
Reuters contributed to this report