VEHICLE STRIKES WOMAN AT PROTEST
A protester marching alongside several dozen others was struck by a truck Thursday night in Eureka while blocking the road during a protest against police brutality.
Protesters said a blue truck ran over the woman’s foot on 5th Street in Eureka in front of the Humboldt County courthouse between 7 and 8 p.m. and one said the truck “apparently came through twice.” Eureka Police Department Captain Brian Stephens said the protester suffered an injury to her ankle and the officers, who had been monitoring the situation from a distance, didn’t witness the incident themselves, but offered to take her to the hospital. She refused, but said she would go to the hospital to get checked out, he said.
“We provided her all the information she needs to make a report with us and asked her to let her friends and other people know if they have any video or evidence of what happened, please send it to us and we’ll build a report and send it to the District Attorney’s Office,” Stephens said.
A press release from the department Friday stated there’s an open investigation into the collision, but “preliminary findings indicate that the pedestrian may have placed herself in the path of the vehicle at the time of the collision.”
The release also stated California Vehicle Code sections that state pedestrians are supposed to yield the right of way to motorists when not in a designated crosswalk and that motorists have to “exercise due care for the safety of any pedestrian upon a roadway.”
The officers took a couple reports of vehicles being vandalized while they were stuck in the traffic generated by the blockade, Stephens said.
“Over the past several months, law enforcement has seen a concerning pattern of protesters purposefully impeding and surrounding the vehicles of uninvolved motorists trapped by animated crowds,” Eureka Police Chief Stephen Watson said in a statement. “Several instances have occurred during demonstrations where this intentionally disruptive activity has escalated to some protesters striking, jumping on, and damaging vehicles.”
The Friday press release stated businesses along 5th Street were also vandalized with spray paint, allegedly by some of those involved in the protest.
One protester said “there were three or four older white men” who were causing a ruckus and engaging in much of the destructive behavior.
“They’re going up to cars that are just trying to get through, and there’s people of color who
“They’re going up to cars that are just trying to get through, and there’s people of color who said they can go through, and these white men are going up to the cars and kicking them.”
— Anonymous protester
said they can go through, and these white men are going up to the cars and kicking them,” she said. “So they’re escalating situations that are putting people of color in harm.”
Thursday’s protest was one of many taking place across the country over recent days demanding justice for Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black healthcare worker fatally shot by police officers in Louisville, Kentucky. A Kentucky grand jury brought no charges Wednesday against police for Taylor’s death. The only charges were three counts of wanton endangerment against fired Officer Brett Hankison for shooting into a home next to Taylor’s with people inside.
Eureka police ask anyone with information about the truck that struck the protester, or the vandalism, to contact the EPD at 707-4414060.