Man drives car into Seattle protest crowd, shoots bystander: police

Brad Brooks
Reuters
Mon, 08 Jun 2020 09:03 UTC

A man drove his car into a crowd of protesters in Seattle on Sunday, then shot and wounded a demonstrator who confronted him as he came to a stop, according to police and eyewitness video.

Seattle police said firefighters took the man who was shot to the hospital and that he was in stable condition. No one else was injured, the police said.

The suspect was seen in the video exiting his car as protesters began to surround it. He brandished what appeared to be a gun, dashed through the crowd and turned himself over to police.

The incident was in contrast to the mostly peaceful weekend protests sparked by the death of George Floyd last month while in Minneapolis police custody.

Comment: A little more context from The Seattle Times:

...

According to the statement of probable cause outlining the police case against him, Fernandez claimed he was about to get carjacked and feared for his life. He told police protesters yelled at him, kicked his car and attempted to grab him through his open, driver's side window — and that the man he shot had reached into his car and grabbed the steering wheel, the statement says.

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Nearly simultaneously, "a male aggressively approached the barrier that was keeping people away from the East Precinct building," breached the barrier and yelled to officers, "I just had to shoot somebody, they tried to jack my car," the statement says.

Police say Fernandez said he was driving around the area of the protest and thought he could get through, so he continued driving on 11th Avenue, then grabbed an unholstered gun from his front passenger seat and shot the man who reached in his window and grabbed the steering wheel.

When asked why he shot the man, Fernandez told an officer he "was getting barricaded by everybody and was fearing for his life," the statement says.

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