Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here.A car drove straight through a crowd of demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Thursday and then deliberately turned to hit a protester before fleeing the scene, a bystander video posted to Twitter shows.The 21-second clip shows a black SUV going through a traffic light while surrounded by protesters, including one who’s on the hood of the car. After the man falls off the car, the driver — identified as “some girl” by the Twitter user who took the video — then deliberately turns the car right to hit the protester again before speeding away, as other protesters chase her.The woman who took the video, Annabel Escobar, later tweeted that the protester “jumped up [on the hood] because she [the driver] wouldn’t stop accelerating towards the people surrounding her car.”Escobar later told the Washington Post that the protester wasn’t seriously hurt. It’s unclear whether the driver has been identified; the Denver Police Department told VICE News that it was aware of the incident and was looking for both the driver and victim. (Anyone with information should call 720.913.STOP.)
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“I was absolutely shocked by video evidence of a motorist attempting to run over a protestor,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis wrote in a series of late Thursday tweets. “Coloradans are better than this. I share the immense anguish we all feel about the unjust murder of George Floyd. But let me be clear, senseless violence will never be healed by more violence.”Protests erupted in Minneapolis, Denver, and several other major American cities yesterday, after largely being confined to Minneapolis for the first few days after Floyd’s death on Memorial Day. Denver police fired tear gas and pepper bullets at protesters on Thursday night; earlier, shots were fired at the state capitol, sending protesters and lawmakers scrambling for cover.Cover: Screenshot via video posted to Annabel Escobar's Twitter.
