An activist was hospitalized after a man drove his pickup truck through a crowd of protesters Monday at an anti-pipeline and anti-Columbus Day event in downtown Reno, Nevada, hitting five of them.
According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, the group was protesting the observance of Columbus Day and the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota. They were gathering around 7 p.m. to take a picture under Reno's colorful arch when a white Nissan pickup truck stopped just short of the crosswalk.
As Quanah Brightman, executive director of United Native Americans, continued relating the incident, the driver then inched toward the group and they crowded around his truck. Angry words were exchanged and the man drove through the crowd, sending an elderly woman under the truck. The driver then sped away from the scene.
“This is a hate crime,” Brightman said, the Gazette-Journal reported. “It’s still brutal to see this kind of racism in America. That man deserves life (in prison) for what he did.”
“Someone took a photo of the license plate number, and we have pictures and video,” he added. “Police should file hate crime charges.”
“He was weaving in between cars, gunned it and nearly clipped another car,” the Rev. Ralph Whitted of Cincinnati told the newspaper about the fleeing driver.
Taylor Paniagua Sr. jumped in front of the Nissan to stop it, but the driver kept going after Paniagua had gotten hold of one of the side doors.
“This just is not right,” Paniagua told the Reno Gazette-Journal. “It didn’t seem right when they revved the engine.”
“I had to stand up for my rights,” he said. “I’m native American myself, and I’m from Oklahoma. It was just uncalled for.”
The Reno Police Department said the driver is 18 years old and had a 17-year-old passenger.
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