Two Seattle Protesters Hit by Car: One Dies, the Other in ICU
One of two Seattle protesters who were hit by a car on a closed highway died on Saturday, officials say.
Summer Taylor, 24, of Seattle died on Saturday night at Harborview Medical Center, spokesperson Susan Gregg said.
The other victim was Diaz Love, 32, of Portland Oregon. According to Gregg, Love is in serious condition in the intensive care unit of Harborview.
They were hit by a car that barreled through a panicked crowd of protesters on Interstate 5 early that day.
The driver, 27-year-old Dawit Kelete of Seattle, drove the car around a blockade on I-5 and sped through the crowds around 1:40 in the morning.
A video of the incident can be found on social media confirming this.
It shows a white Jaguar swerving at high speed on I-5 to avoid the van blocking the road. The car hit a small group of protesters who tried to run away, said a report from Reuters.
Associated Press reported that Love was filming the protest in a nearly two-hour-long Facebook livestream. The video ended all of a sudden and shouts of "Car! Car!" can be heard in the background as the camera shook.
What followed were sounds of screeching tires and people getting hit.
The two protesters were sent flying into the air when the car hit them. They flipped over the car's roof before hitting the pavement.
Targeted attack?
Trooper Chase Van Cleave said Kelete was alone at the time of the incident and drove away after hitting the protesters.
Someone from the crowd got into a car and chased him for about a mile. He stopped Kelete by pulling his car in front of the suspect's Jaguar.
Washington State Patrol Capt. Ron Mead said the protesters had been on the freeway for over an hour.
The interstate had also been closed for more than an hour before the car drove in. Officials tried to find out the motive and how the driver got onto the interstate.
Kelete was put in custody when the troopers arrived, said Van Cleave.
Court documents said he asked if the pedestrians were okay. The documents also described Kelete to be sullen when he was arrested.
Kelete has been charged with two counts of vehicular assault, said a report from BBC.
He was denied bail but faces a second court hearing on Monday where a judge will tell if he can be released on bail.
Police did not say if it was a targeted attack.
Closing the Interstate-5
The Washington State Patrol said that it won't allow protesters to enter I-5 anymore and would arrest pedestrians on the freeway.
The protesters had shut down the interstate for 19 days in a row, Mead said.
In order to keep drivers and protesters safe, the State Patrol responded by closing sections of the interstate.
Mead emphasized that the road is "simply not a safe place" for pedestrians. "My hope is, as a result of this tragedy, protesters will reconsider their desire to be on the interstate because I cannot guarantee their safety, plain and simple," he said.
To learn more about the incident, read this earlier report from us.
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