SUV driver who hit protesters charged with assault, hit-and-run
SAN JOSE >> A woman has been charged with five felonies after she was seen driving into a crowd of protesters in downtown San Jose last week, injuring two men and prompting a deputy to shoot at her SUV before she sped off to her home a few blocks away.
Bianca Orozco, 26, of San Jose was arraigned on two counts of assault with a deadly weapon causing great bodily injury and two counts of hit-and-run in connection with one the most searing images from the first day of demonstrations in San Jose protesting the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
She also was charged with one count of child endangerment on account of her 2-year-old son being in the vehicle with her when the alleged crimes occurred.
The defendant — whose last name in police, jail and other public records is Orozco but is listed as Orozco Damian in the charging documents — was sent back to the Santa Clara County jail by Judge Johnny Gogo on $100,000 bail, over the objections of prosecutors who asked for no bail. She faces almost 12 years in prison if convicted of all charges.
“Her actions choosing to flee, to hit and run, and her Bianca Orozco, 26, of San Jose, was booked into Santa Clara County Jail on five felony charges after allegedly driving a Dodge Durango into protesters and deputies at Sixth Street and Santa Clara Street in San Jose on May 29. disregard for the victims — the totality of circumstances leads us to charge her in case,” Deputy District Attorney Jessica Bustos said Wednesday. “Thankfully, no one was killed by her incredibly dangerous act.”
Orozco declined a request for a jail interview with this news organization. But according to a police investigation summary accompanying the charges, she reportedly told San Jose detectives she was not aware she had hit anyone as she drove away from the crowd of demonstrators gathered at Santa Clara and Sixth streets around 9 p.m. Friday.
According to detectives, Orozco said that as she approached the intersection heading west, she told protesters to move out of the way, “but they surrounded her vehicle and began to throw objects.” She reportedly said she started driving her gray Dodge Durango through but the presence of protesters and police officers prompted her to make a U-turn to go back as more protesters converged on her vehicle.
She then said “she backed up her vehicle at a high rate of speed, but did not look back, and then fled from the area,” the detectives wrote.
When she backed up, she hit two men, who were taken to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, Bustos said. As she sped away, several pedestrians were in the way, which prompted a Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputy performing crowd control to fire a single shot at the fleeing vehicle.
Before she got out of the area, a San Jose police officer got a good look at the SUV’s license plate and Orozco herself, according to detectives. Orozco was tracked down Saturday to her home a quarter mile away from the crime scene and was arrested.
During a subsequent police interview, detectives wrote, Orozco said “she was unaware she had hit pedestrians until 10 minutes later upon seeing it on social media. She later discovered that her vehicle had been struck by a bullet, retrieved it and took it inside of the residence. She wanted to tell police, but said she was in a state of shock and planned on calling in the morning.”
But that never happened. Detectives wrote that a girlfriend of Orozco who was also in the SUV was interviewed and said they were aware of the protests when they headed toward downtown to go to a 7-Eleven. When asked about Orozco’s maneuvers, “She admitted that if she was one of the officers, she would be afraid for her life.”
The girlfriend also corroborated that neither of them believed they hit anyone, but that after realizing what happened, “They never called police to report the incident,” according to the detectives.
Prosecutors contend that Orozco could have safely left the area but instead “used her vehicle as a deadly weapon” to carve a path.
“She had a path to leave, but instead turned around, drove vehicle back toward law enforcement and protesters,” Bustos said.
“Then when confronted, she backed into protesters, and accelerated quickly toward the victims she ran over.”
Orozco is next scheduled to appear in court July 22. Contact Robert Salonga at 408-920-5002.