Organizer of California rally tried to kill Trump supporters, prosecutor says

The organizer of a demonstration against police brutality in Southern California is accused of trying to kill President Trump’s supporters, The Associated Press reported Tuesday. 

Tatiana Turner faces charges of attempted murder, with Orange County prosecutors arguing that the she drove into a crowd of counterprotesters Saturday with “the intent to kill,” according to the wire service.  

Turner allegedly ran over a woman’s head and seriously injured a man who broke his leg. 

“She positioned her vehicle to be used as a backup weapon and she used that vehicle as a deadly weapon, willing to injure and kill those who stood in her way,” District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement to the AP. 

Orange County officials charged the 40-year-old woman with attempted murder Tuesday after her lawyer argued that Turner was trying to drive away from the Trump supporters because she did not receive help from deputy officers present at the rally. 

“There were actions that caused her to become fearful for her life and that’s when she accelerated,” Turner’s attorney, Ludlow Creary II, said. 

Turner appeared in court remotely from the jail where she is being held, with her lawyer pleading not guilty on Turner’s behalf. The court ordered that Turner’s bail be set at $1 million. 

There have been more than 100 incidents of motorists driving into crowds at demonstrations since May following the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, according to the wire service. 

Turner’s arrest and charges come less than a week after a protester was struck by a pickup truck at another Los Angeles rally calling for racial justice and an end to police brutality. 

The Los Angeles Police Department shared a statement on Twitter early on Friday saying that as more than 300 protesters marched along Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard shortly after 9 p.m. on Thursday, a blue truck “maneuvered through the crowd and became involved in an altercation.”

According to police, the driver struck a demonstrator while attempting to leave the situation. Police added in the statement that the person was taken to the hospital with “minor injuries.”