TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) – Charges will not be filed against the driver of a pickup pulling a horse trailer that went through a crowd of protesters May 31 on Interstate 244, Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler announced Thursday.
To the contrary, Kunzweiler called on the Oklahoma Highway Patrol to identify the aggressive protesters from video of the incident, because he said, “The individuals responsible should be held accountable.”
The crowd of social justice protesters left their designated area and spilled on to the highway that day. What happened next was described by the district attorney in a memo released Thursday as a “a violent and unprovoked attack.”
The truck contained a man, his wife and their two school-aged children, and they told the OHP that they feared for their lives.
There were no horses in the trailer.
Kunzweiler’s memo states that the driver saw someone motion him to go through, following the lead of another car that was allowed to pass through the protesters that blocked the highway.
Then, “protesters descend upon” the truck, beating it, grabbing at it and throwing things at it, according to the memo: "The children describe how their family vehicle was surrounded and repeatedly being struck. One child described the sound as if they were in a hail storm. The children’s mother echoed her children’s statements and described them as so scared they got on the floorboard of the truck, screaming and crying.”
The OHP documented damage to the truck: a broken windshield, a door handle torn off, a fractured grill, dents in multiple places.
The OHP found that several protesters were hurt during the incident. One of them fell off the overpass and suffered serious injuries, including paralysis.
But the investigators blame the crowd for causing two of the injuries, including those suffered by the man who fell off the overpass. The OHP determined a woman on a bicycle was pushed to the ground by the truck, and she suffered an ankle injury.
Kunzweiler wrote in his conclusion:
To the contrary, Kunzweiler called on the Oklahoma Highway Patrol to identify the aggressive protesters from video of the incident, because he said, “The individuals responsible should be held accountable.”
The crowd of social justice protesters left their designated area and spilled on to the highway that day. What happened next was described by the district attorney in a memo released Thursday as a “a violent and unprovoked attack.”
The truck contained a man, his wife and their two school-aged children, and they told the OHP that they feared for their lives.
There were no horses in the trailer.
Kunzweiler’s memo states that the driver saw someone motion him to go through, following the lead of another car that was allowed to pass through the protesters that blocked the highway.
Then, “protesters descend upon” the truck, beating it, grabbing at it and throwing things at it, according to the memo: "The children describe how their family vehicle was surrounded and repeatedly being struck. One child described the sound as if they were in a hail storm. The children’s mother echoed her children’s statements and described them as so scared they got on the floorboard of the truck, screaming and crying.”
The OHP documented damage to the truck: a broken windshield, a door handle torn off, a fractured grill, dents in multiple places.
The OHP found that several protesters were hurt during the incident. One of them fell off the overpass and suffered serious injuries, including paralysis.
But the investigators blame the crowd for causing two of the injuries, including those suffered by the man who fell off the overpass. The OHP determined a woman on a bicycle was pushed to the ground by the truck, and she suffered an ankle injury.
Kunzweiler wrote in his conclusion:
https://ktul.com/news/local/no-charges-in-i-244-truck-incident-with-protesters#
