St. Louis: Driver Injures 3 Demonstrators At Trans Lives Matter Memorial

Three demonstrators at a Trans Lives Matter memorial in St. Louis were injured last night when a driver drove through the crowd.

The vigil was organized in memory of Kiwi Herring, a trans woman who died earlier this week when she allegedly cut a police officer with a knife.

The demonstrators blocked the road frustrating drivers who mostly found other venues to drive around the crowd.

But one driver in a Mercedes, after honking his horn in an attempt to dispel the crowd, drove through the protesters.

Pix from car that drove through protesters, car stopped was surrounded, then drove through, one person ended up on hood, only minor injuries pic.twitter.com/EYNxSJARoF

— David Carson (@PDPJ) August 24, 2017

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Police and those present at the vigil are giving different accounts of how the situation escalated.

Schron Jackson, a police spokeswoman, gave the following statement to the River Front Times:

Tonight, a group of protesters marched from the Transgender Memorial to the intersection of Manchester and Sarah were they blocked traffic in all directions. A vehicle approached, stopped, honked its horn and attempted to drive around the protesters.

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 (white male) proceeded to drive away when three protesters ( 2 white females and 1 white male) fell from the vehicle. The three protesters reported minor injuries, but refused medical attention on the scene.

Police attempted to stop driver of vehicle who initially refused to stop. He stopped about a block away from the incident and was taken into custody for felony fleeing. The incident was captured on video. The investigation is ongoing.

Protester Keith Rose disputes that account in a Facebook post, saying no one hit the car until the driver began running into people. He said the driver gave the finger to the crowd before driving into them.

“The SLMPD is going out of its way to protect this man who tried to run over people just a couple weeks after the Charlottesville attack. This kind of immunity from consequences only emboldens the people who want to harm protesters,” he writes.