The Black Lives Matter protester charged with attempted murder in California for plowing through a crowd of Trump supporters insists she feared for her life — and only hit the gas after police ignored her pleas for help.
Tatiana Turner called 911 when she was surrounded by a hostile group of counter-protesters — some with firearms — during the “Caravan for Justice” protest she organized in Yorba Linda Saturday, her lawyer claimed.
She appealed to deputies at the scene — and only drove off after she “got the runaround” and her pleas for help were ignored, her attorney, Ludlow Creary II, told the Associated Press.
“Sheriff’s deputies on scene didn’t do anything and the crowd of Trump supporters grew,” Creary said. “It essentially was a hostile environment.”
Turner, 40, left a man and woman hospitalized with injuries as she drove through the crowd, as caught on video.
“She wasn’t trying to hit anybody,” Creary insisted. ”She wasn’t trying to hurt anybody.”
The sheriff’s department, however, said deputies did not think Turner was in danger when she accelerated into the crowd of people.
“It did not appear from the video we’ve been able to see that there was a direct threat,” spokeswoman Carrie Braun said.
“I wasn’t there and wasn’t sitting in the vehicle. I don’t want to say what she could, would or should have done. Clearly, any time an incident like this occurs it’s tragic for everybody involved.”
Turner is being held on $1 million bail on suspicion of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. She faces her first court appearance later Tuesday in Orange County Superior Court.
With Post wires
