A female pickup-truck driver revved her engine before racing through a group of Breonna Taylor protesters in upstate New York — peeling away after hitting a cyclist, according to video and reports.
The Dodge truck was caught in numerous videos revving its engines as it drove toward dozens of demonstrators who were blocking traffic outside Buffalo city hall late Wednesday.
A WKBW camera crew caught the truck smacking into a female protester — with other screaming as it tore away from the scene.
“I hear the tires screech and then I see the truck swerving,” witness Eve Shippens, a local teacher, told The Buffalo News, recalling a “tremendous bang” as the victim was sent “flying up in the air.”
The hit cyclist, identified as Karen Huffman, an organizer of local community bike rides, suffered a broken shoulder and possible fractured wrist, the reports said.
“I thought for sure she was dead,” fellow protester Dianne Britain told The Buffalo News, insisting the driver “never slowed down.”
“She never hesitated. She never stopped. There was no braking. She just plowed right there. We just watched my friend get smashed,” she said.
After the truck sped off, a small group gave chase, eventually cornering the crying female driver after she stopped away from the crash scene.
“Murderer!” screamed at least one person around the car, as caught by a local videographer who said the woman’s truck had a pro-police “Blue Lives Matter” flag on it.
Witnesses told WKBW that the driver was shouting at protesters when she drove through them, with one saying she yelled, “I don’t like y’all black lives matter.”
When she was cornered, however, she sobbed, “I didn’t mean to!” She also tried to wave down a passing police car that did not stop, the video showed.
Buffalo police told local media that the driver is a 59-year-old local woman who is cooperating with the investigation. No charges have been filed, the Buffalo News said in an update Thursday afternoon.
The protests in Buffalo were among many around the US Wednesday sparked by the grand jury decision in Kentucky not to charge any Louisville officers with killing black EMT Breonna Taylor in March.
