AndrewBlakeBrea, California – A 56-year-old man drove through a group of protesters blocking the street, as people jumped on his car, and banged on its sides, in an attempt to prevent him from moving (video below).
“I think he was trying to get through the crowd,” Brea Police Lt. Adam Hawley said. “We don’t have any indication he was trying to harm somebody.”
Daniel Wenzek was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.
However, NBC Los Angeles reported that no demonstrators stayed around long enough to file police reports.
Wenzek was booked and released pending further investigation, according to Brea Police Department Lt. Kelly Carpenter, the Los Angeles Times reported.
There were several hundred protesters rallying in support of illegal immigration outside of GOP Congressman Ed Royce’s office at 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 26.
Police were trying to clear the intersection when the incident occurred.
The video showed the car was stopped, blocked by protesters.
The driver began honking the horn to clear people out of the street.
Protesters then surrounded the car, and a few protesters put their bodies in front of the car, and jumped on the hood.
As can be seen on the video below, Wenzek began to slowly move forward, which inspired protesters to jump in front of his vehicle, and at least one protester started pounding on the hood.
Wenzek continued to creep forward while beeping his horn, as another protester ran and jumped on the hood of his car.
At that point, the car appeared to speed up.
Police stopped the vehicle in its path, as the incident was occurring.
“There were definitely a lot of drivers who were laying on their horns and getting pretty irate,” said Andrew Cohen said, a communications specialist with the organization Unite Here, one of the groups who organized the protest.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Claudia Aguilera, 46, of Los Angeles, jumped onto the hood of the car.
Aguilera was on the hood for about seven seconds as the car accelerated before she said she slid off.
“My only thought is that I just want him to stop,” Aguilera told the Los Angeles Times. “I’m like, if I just jump on the car, he’s going to stop. He did stop, thank God, because if he didn’t stop, he would [have] run over a lot of people that [were] crossing the street. It was so quick.”
Other protesters pushed against the car’s hood area, and hit the passenger door with sticks.
This incident occurred at a time when numerous states are considering legislation that would create laws to protect drivers from criminal charges if they hit protesters in the roadway.
Kentucky is the latest state to introduce what opponents are calling “anti-protest” legislation.
You can see the video of the incident below.