This is the sickening moment a hit-and-run driver smashed
into a crowd of Ferguson protesters in Minnesota, before dragging a woman 20
feet under his front wheel and running over her leg.
The motorist, who has not been identified, was captured on
video speeding toward the group in a dark-colored Subaru Outback during a march
and rally in Minneapolis on Tuesday afternoon.
He plowed into demonstrators, before smashing into a woman
and carrying her along the road under his front-left wheel, while another
protester who also struck by the vehicle desperately clung to its hood.As bystanders screamed loudly and rushed to the woman's aid,
the car briefly stopped, before driving off. However, it came to a halt further
down the road and the driver was reportedly taken into custody.
The incident, filmed by KSTP's Chopper 5, occurred a day
after the grand jury's decision not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the
shooting of Michael Brown in the suburb of Ferguson in St Louis, Missouri, on
August 9 was announced.It also came as tens of thousands of people in more than 170
cities across America - including Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, New York and
Los Angeles, among others - were demonstrating against the long-awaited verdict
for a second night. In the Minneapolis crash at 4.30pm local time, the woman,
who has not been named, was attended to by paramedics in the intersection near
the Minneapolis Police Department's 3rd Precinct headquarters at Lake Street
and Minnehaha Avenue.
She was later taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul with
'very minor injuries', police told the
Minneapolis Star Tribune. She is believed to have
since been released. Meanwhile, the driver is currently being questioned by
police, although no formal charges have been filed against him.
The incident came just a day after St Louis County
Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch declared that the jury of seven men and
five women found 'no probable cause exists' to indict Wilson in the shooting,
which made headlines across the world.
Following the hit-and-run, about 200 protesters gathered on
the state capitol steps in St. Paul and marched in protest at the secret
panel's verdict.
