This happened last night in Minneapolis. The name of the protestor killed hasn't been officially released but I saw her name posted by some friends who were at the protest. At the moment it's not known for certain if this was intentional but from several reports I've heard from eyewitnesses is the driver sped up before hitting cars that were infront of the protests. Also local news is reporting drugs may have been involved. Note the driver was captured by protesters and turned over to LE. He had injuries but not certain if those are from the crash or during his capture. https://www.mprnews.org/story/2021/...crashes-into-protesters-in-uptown-minneapolis 1 dead, 2 hurt after driver plows into protesters in Uptown Minneapolis Updated: 7:25 a.m. One person was killed and two injured Sunday night after the driver of an SUV drove into a crowd of protesters in the Uptown area of Minneapolis, near the site where Winston Smith was shot by sheriff's deputies earlier this month. A witness said the eastbound SUV was moving at a high rate of speed as it approached just before midnight, and that the driver appeared to accelerate as they got closer to demonstrators who had blocked off Lake Street near Girard Avenue. The driver struck a vehicle parked across one of the traffic lanes on Lake Street, apparently positioned to protect the crowd. That second vehicle then hit people. Police said early Monday that the investigation into the incident was still beginning, although they believe the driver may have been impaired by drugs or alcohol. D.J. Hooker is an organizer with Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar and said people in the street had been playing volleyball and yard games when the crash happened later in the evening. “A car came at us going like 70 or 80 miles an hour,” Hooker said in an interview. “There was one line of barriers and then a second barrier, and he sped up. He sped up. He went even faster as he approached us. You could hear it ... start going even faster as he got close to us.” Witnesses said the SUV hit the stationary vehicle hard enough to send it moving toward bystanders in the street. “The car went through the air and it hit a young woman,” Hooker said. The vehicles came to rest on Lake Street, including an SUV with serious front-end damage and another smaller vehicle with damage to the side. Another witness, Brett Williams, said the woman struck by the car that had been hit was thrown into a stop light standard beside the street. Social media posts showed what appeared to be the driver of the SUV on the sidewalk being detained by bystanders, suffering some injuries, although it wasn’t immediately clear what happened to him. “The dude could talk. The dude could walk. The dude got out the car and tried to f——— run and he tried to get away,” Hooker said. Another witness, Selena McKnight, said it was clear the crash had seriously injured one of the people in the street, a woman she named, although MPR could not immediately confirm her identity. “I was so worried about her,” McKnight said. “I just started praying.” Police said a woman was taken to a nearby hospital and died there a short time later. Another injured protester also was taken to a hospital, as was the driver of the SUV, police said. Police spokesperson John Elder said that Minneapolis police and the Minnesota State Patrol were both working on investigating the crash. “Our preliminary investigation indicates that drug or alcohol use may be a factor in this case, and that would be on the part of the driver,” Elder said. The driver’s motive was not immediately known. This is the second major incident in a little over a year involving street protests and speeding traffic. A fuel tanker truck drove through a crowd of demonstrators gathered on the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis in May 2020, during protests following the death of George Floyd. No one was seriously injured in that incident. “We’re always concerned about that. We try to work with organizers of protesters to provide a safe area for everybody, whether that be the protesters or the motoring public,” Elder said. He said police had been monitoring the protest remotely, but didn’t know if any officers were present in the area or working on traffic control there at the time of the crash. ‘This is going to be the summer of Winston Smith’ Earlier Sunday, a crowd had gathered atop the parking ramp where Smith was fatally shot. The rally of several hundred people and subsequent march on Lake Street came a day after Smith's friends and family gathered for his funeral. At both events, there were calls for answers about what took place when a U.S. Marshals task force confronted Smith. And there were calls for justice, as a lack of video footage of the shooting — and the statement of a witness who disputes the initial law enforcement account — have raised questions. The names of the sheriff's deputies who were part of the federal task force and fired at Smith have not been released. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is handling the investigation and has released few details. "Law enforcement continue to play cloak and dagger games with the people," Johnathon McClellan of the Minnesota Justice Coalition said at Sunday's rally. "The family has questions about who killed their loved one (and) we shouldn’t have to wait until the city is burning, businesses are destroyed, community resources are exhausted, for law enforcement to do the right thing by the people." Activist Toussaint Morrison told the crowd that businesses and residents in the area should expect to see more protests and marches and rallies in the coming months. "We’re here with candles, we’re here with cameras, we’re here with the truth, we’re here with our voices, we’re here with our tears, we're here with our hearts — because this is going to be the summer of Winston Smith," Morrison said. McClellan also urged lawmakers to pass police reform legislation, saying people are tired of "lip service" from elected officials. "Minnesota and our country needs legislation that values human life, promotes accountability and transparency, and allows victims to get justice," he said. A rally took place earlier Sunday atop the parking ramp where Smith was shot and killed June 3 by members of a federal task force attempting to arrest him. That was followed by an evening march on Lake Street.
For those wondering this is over the shooting of Winston Smith a black man by Federal Marshals. The facts are in dispute about the shooting and there is no video of the shooting as the Marshals didn't allow body cam footage. https://www.kare11.com/article/news...ement/89-dfd10779-65eb-45da-b588-a206b17e91c2 What led up to Winston Smith's encounter with law enforcement? In a February Instagram post, Smith discusses how he had thoughts of dying by police gunfire rather than go to prison but said he tried to keep a positive mindset. MINNEAPOLIS — Facts are in dispute concerning the death of Winston Smith between the woman who was in the car with him and the agency investigating. "She never saw a gun on Winston Smith, and she never saw a gun inside the vehicle at any time," said attorney Racey Rodne. The woman through her attorney says there was no gun - while the BCA says they collected a "handgun as well as spent cartridge cases from inside the driver's compartment" after Smith shot first. Many questions remain about what led up to the shooting - but here is what can be pieced together with court records and social media posts. According to court records, Smith pleaded guilty in 2018 to 1st Degree Aggravated Robbery for an attack on his ex-girlfriend, and he received probation and a suspended sentence. Then in December 2019 he was charged with having a handgun in violation of his probation and terms of his prior conviction. Court transcripts show he reluctantly agreed to a plea deal in November 2020 that would send him to prison for four years. At one point he said "I don't think this is fair." Smith later tried to withdraw his guilty plea but the judge denied the request. Court records say Smith missed his sentencing date in May and this warrant was issued, leading to the U.S. Marshals task force trying to arrest him. In a video posted to Smith's Instagram account in February, he discusses his upcoming prison term. "I'm like, four years? I would rather die. My mind is not right. I'm like, I'm ready to die, for my freedom. Because I feel like they're not treating me fair. I feel like the situation is that it was a gun somewhere around me. And they want me to do four years because of that. I didn't have the gun. I didn't shoot nobody. I didn't kill nobody," Smith said. Smith explains in the video that he is shaken after watching video of the police shooting of Dolal Idd, who was killed in December 2020 after allegedly firing at officers first through his car window. "I'm really thinking like this is how I want to go out. This is how I want to go out. I'm thinking, four years, f*** that, let them see I'm a gangsta. You know what I'm saying? Let them see I'll die for this s***. All this wrong mindset, you know what I'm saying?" Smith says. Smith then goes onto say that he tries to keep the right mindset by remembering that dying would do nothing good for him. "If you think like that, stop thinking like that," Smith said. Without video footage of the shooting - very few people know exactly how the entire incident played out.
