FBI is involved in hit-protester case
Agents present for witness statements
A motorist who police say drove into four protesters will be back in court Friday, in a case that has prompted scrutiny of police and prosecutors’ response.
Another agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was also involved.
FBI agents were present June 6 when Shiloh Barnat Goodman gave a written witness statement, she said. “The way they positioned it to us sounded like a good thing, that they were there because of the heightened tensions and suspicious mistrust of police,” Barnat Goodman said.
She and her 16-year-old daughter were among the protesters that 18-yearold Anthony Marcuzzo of Germantown drove into, according to a police detective’s review of surveillance video, during a Black Lives Matter protest in the Memphis neighborhood of Cooperyoung June 5.
He was arrested on misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and reckless endangerment and released without bond the following day.
Marcuzzo’s lawyer, Mark Mesler said the incident wasn’t politically motivated. But the people Marcuzzo drove into and other eyewitnesses contend he acted with purpose.
The capacity in which the FBI was present for witness statements is not entirely clear.
Hate crimes, domestic terrorism and other violations of federal civil rights statutes are among areas which the FBI has primary authority to investigate and prosecute.
Elizabeth Clement Webb, spokesperson for the FBI’S Memphis field office said the agency is “aware of the incident” and does not comment on “the possibility of investigations.”
She added: “The FBI supports our state, local, and federal law enforcement partners with maintaining public safety in the communities we serve.”
Clement Webb suggested contacting the Memphis Police Department, whose spokesperson, Lt. Karen Rudolph, said no new information would be made available on the case, given judicial proceedings underway.
According to its site, the FBI “works closely” with local authorities “even when federal charges are not brought”.
Marcuzzo’s charges do not imply he acted with malice and a judge has yet to rule on the case.
But the FBI’S presence is notable given that the incident falls among a growing pattern of vehicles driving into protests across the U.S.
A small number are accidents, according to University of Chicago researcher Ari Weil, who studies vehicleramming incidents and the propaganda surrounding them — including the effect of state bills that sought to protect drivers in Tennessee and beyond.
Right-wing violence is a dominant thread, according to Weil.
As a domestic terror threat, U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, (D-miss.), Chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, has pushed for transparency of the FBI’S efforts to combat right-wing violence.
Details of the agency’s investigations due to members of Congress have not yet been provided, a spokesperson for Thompson said. The wave of vehicle assaults is among issues the Congressman’s office is looking into, the spokesperson added.
Hate crime statistics released by the agency provide some insight into the FBI’S related work in Tennessee, though in testimony to Congress in 2019, former special agent Michael German said Justice Department surveys show less than half of hate crimes are reported, given “broken trust” with law enforcement.
FBI data shows, in the most recent three years available, Memphis police reported a single digit number of incidents each year, from nine in 2016 to six incidents reported to the FBI in 2018.
Sarah Macaraeg is an award-winning journalist who writes investigations, features and the occasional news story for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at sarah.macaraeg@commercialappeal.com, 901-5292889 or on Twitter @seramak.