Organizer arrested after driving car into protest

LOS ANGELES » An organizer of a Southern California demonstration against racism was in jail Sunday on suspicion of attempted murder after authorities say she drove through a crowdand struck two counterprotesters.

Tatiana Turner, 40, was arrested Saturday in Yorba Linda after speeding from a parking lot when her car was surrounded by shouting counterprotesters who had been ordered by police to leave the area.

Anthony Bryson, who helped Turner plan the event for the Urban Organizers Coalition, said an angry mob had surrounded Turner and wouldn’t let her leave the lot.

“People had broken her windshield,” Bryson told The Associated Press. “She was trying to leave. Shewas in fear for her life.”

About 150 people in Turner’s group had been protesting police brutality and systemic racism at the Yorba Linda library about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles when a group of counterprotesters, began to grow on the other side of Imperial Highway.

The two groups initially stayed apart, as authorities requested, but the counterprotesters then crossed the sixlane highway and confronted the racial justice group.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department declared an unlawful assembly and told the groups, estimated at 250 people total, to leave after fights were reported and some people were said to be carrying weapons. One person pepper-sprayed another protester and one man was arrested for disobeying the order to leave, police said.

Video of the incident shows loud protesters, some waving American flags and a Trump 2020 banner, around Turner’s white car as she accelerates away. Her rear window shatters as she drives away and dozens of people give chase.

A man, who had both legs broken, and a woman with moderate injuries were hospitalized, authorities said.

Turner is being held on $1 million bail and expected to appear in court Tuesday, according to a county website. It was not immediately known if she had a lawyer.