Car Rams Into St. Louis Crowd At Vigil For Transgender Woman Kiwi Herring
Witnesses say the driver intentionally drove through the crowd of demonstrators.
A car drove through a protest vigil in St. Louis on Wednesday, but witnesses and police are differing on the details of what actually happened
Marchers were out protesting the shooting death of Kenneth “Kiwi” Herring, a transgender woman, when a car that they had blocked on an intersection rammed through, injuring three people. The injuries have been described as minor.
According to St. Louis police, the driver stopped and attempted to drive around the protesters before some of them surrounded the car and began hitting it.
“A vehicle approached, stopped, honked its horn and attempted to drive around the protesters,” the police statement says. “The protesters surrounded the vehicle and began striking it with their hands and a flag pole. Several protesters also kicked and jumped on top of the vehicle. The driver of the vehicle … proceeded to drive away when three protesters … fell from the vehicle.”
A witness, however, tells the St. Louis Dispatch that the driver’s intentions were not innocent. Keith Rose says he saw the driver raise his middle fingers before accelerating through the crowd.
Police apprehended the driver a block from the incident after initially refusing to stop.
The incident occurred less than two weeks after James Fields drove his car into a crowd of counterprotestors in Charlottesville, killing Heather Heyers and injuring 19 people.
About 100 protesters in St. Louis were demonstrating the fatal shooting of Herring, who had been killed by police officers Tuesday. Police say Herring cut an officer with a knife, but the protesters believe the police acted prematurely.
The NAACP circulated a travel advisory against traveling to Missouri earlier this month after the state passed a law that Missouri’s NAACP conference says allows for legal discrimination.