Attacked by truck drivers in D.C. protests, 2 people say
WASHINGTON — Two people said they were attacked by drivers in the trucker convoy that has been riding around Washington, D.C., for the past two weeks as part of a demonstration, even as D.C. police try to keep them out by blocking interstate exits into downtown.
Police said they are investigating both incidents — one that occurred March 16 on the Francis Case Memorial Bridge and the other on March 20 at Dupont Circle.
No arrests or charges have been filed in either case.
Chris Rodriguez, director of Washington’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, said Friday that officials remain focused on deterring the convoy from disrupting traffic and travel, though convoy leaders have called road blockages a violation of their First Amendment rights.
Rodriguez said the city is aware of threats made toward Mayor Muriel Bowser and Washington police officers.
Convoy participants are protesting against vaccine mandates, which have largely been lifted, but their demonstration encompasses other right-wing concerns. On most days, the convoy has traveled around the Beltway, but it at times has taken other highways or found its way onto city streets.
On March 20, Kerry Bedard said a member of the convoy rolled his vehicle into her at Dupont Circle.
Bedard, 73, said she first waved from the sidewalk in an attempt to ask the driver to stop honking while traffic was at a standstill. When he did not reply, she said, she walked into the street in front of his vehicle to ask him to stop beeping. She said he bumped her with his vehicle, which knocked her down and resulted in injuries to her foot and leg that require surgery.
A spokesman for D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services said the person involved in that incident refused medical services. Bedard said she wanted to be treated at a specific hospital and was taken there by a friend.
"These people are looking for anything they can to discredit what we are doing. They either don't understand what this is about or don't like freedom." — Mike Landis, co-organizer of the Freedom Convoy
The driver of the vehicle, who is from Ohio, told police that “he was driving forward slowly” when Bedard “walked into the street and in front of his vehicle while yelling and then laid down in the roadway.”
Bedard denied that account, saying she was holding her small Shih Tzu at the time and would not have laid down. Police classified the incident as “miscellaneous.”
The March 16 incident on the bridge occurred as a 33-year-old man from Alexandria, Va., was heading into Washington on his motorcycle. The man said he got caught up in the middle of the convoy, and as did several other motorists, he “flipped off” the convoy drivers.
The man said that while stalled in traffic, a truck driver opened his door in an apparent attempt to knock him off the motorcycle. He said the attempt failed, and he drove in front of the truck and stopped.
The man said other drivers got out of their vehicles, and an argument ensued. He said they dragged him off his motorcycle, took his keys and assaulted him, slamming his head into the pavement several times. He said the truckers had retreated by the time police arrived. He was wearing his helmet at the time.
Rodriguez said the city is coordinating with authorities in Maryland and seeing a “significant decline” in the numbers of vehicles and trucks in Hagerstown, estimated at about 100. He said the majority of the vehicles on the route now are personally owned.
Rodriguez said that when convoy members do find their way into the city, police respond and “take action if any laws are broken.”
When asked about the two incidents in which residents alleged that they were assaulted by members of the convoy, Mike Landis, a co-organizer of the group, replied in a text message, “no one was attacked.”
He wrote that “these people are looking for anything they can to discredit what we are doing. They either don't understand what this is about or don't like freedom.”