Los Angeles police responded Sunday after somebody drove a U-Haul box truck down a street crowded with marchers demonstrating in support of the Iranian people, causing protesters to scramble out of the way and then run after the speeding vehicle to try to attack the driver.
The U-Haul truck, with its side mirrors shattered, was stopped several blocks away and surrounded by police cars. ABC7 news helicopter footage showed officers keeping the crowd at bay as demonstrators swarmed the truck, throwing punches at the driver and thrusting flagpoles through the driver's side window.
Social media videos showed a U-Haul truck driving through the marchers.
"Aerial video from ABC7 shows police detaining the driver of a U-Haul Truck that drove through an Iranian pro-monarchist, anti-regime march today in Los Angeles, as crowds of protesters attempt to attack the truck and driver, being held back by officers with the Los Angeles Police Department," according to reports from an open source intelligence monitor account on X.
"Additional footage of the U-Haul Truck driving through the Iranian pro-monarchist, anti-regime march today in Los Angeles," the open source intelligence monitor account added on X.
The police department confirmed its officers were on the scene but didn't immediately say if anyone was arrested.
Two people were evaluated by paramedics and both declined treatment, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
Several hundred people had gathered Sunday afternoon in the Westwood neighborhood to protest against the Iranian theocracy. The LA police department eventually issued a dispersal order, and by 5 p.m. local time (8 p.m. ET) only about a hundred protesters were still at the scene, ABC7 reported.
Activists say a crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran has killed more than 530 people. Protesters flooded the streets in Iran's capital of Tehran and its second-largest city again Sunday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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