Over the weekend, two protesters were hit by a car onto a closed Seattle freeway and into a crowd protesting police brutality, leaving one dead.
According to a police report released by the Washington State Patrol, Dawit Kelete of Seattle drove his car around cars that were blocking I-5 and sped into a crowd of protesters.
In the graphic video that circulated social media, shows a white Jaguar speeding towards the protesters and hitting two.
Kelete fled the scene of the incident. A protester was able to chase down the Jaguar and stop him by pulling his car in front of the vehicle, according to State Trooper Chase Van Cleave.
The driver was taken into custody at King County Correctional Facility on Saturday morning on two counts of vehicular assault. Bail was denied.
The victims, Summer Taylor,24, and Diaz Love,32, were rushed to Harborview Medical Center. Taylor died Saturday evening, and Love is in serious condition in the intensive care unit, spokesperson Susan Gregg said.
According to AP News, Love was recording the protest on Facebook Live captioned, “Black Femme March takes I-5.” The video ended abruptly with shouts of “Car!” heard as the camera begins to shake before screeching tires, and the sound of impact is heard.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCOlMpyn0Xh/?igshid=1b0rf2zoc0fwq
Love posted on Facebook about the protests and how that she’ll be shocked if a major tragedy didn’t take place.
“This weekend is a big one. If you’ve been following the Revolution and protests, you know the death threats from various hate groups is real, real this weekend. I’ll be shocked if some major tragedy doesn’t take place in one of our protests in the States this weekend. To say Im scared af to be going out and protesting this weekend is an understatement.”
Love’s post continued, “my brave Black Femmes will be on their march today. Still, we need to protect Black woman. So I think I’ll get in the streets to live stream again tonight. But fuckkkkk I’m scared.”
Protesters took to Twitter to state that Kelete didn’t work alone, the police had left one on-ramp open, and that an officer had been circling & threatening protesters in her personal vehicle.
Organizers are calling for #MollyClark to be arrested for attempted murder.
https://twitter.com/kristinminkdc/status/1279774143253282816?s=21
