A Seattle man who the authorities said drove into a protest on a closed section of Interstate 5 over the weekend, killing one demonstrator, was charged on Wednesday with vehicular homicide, vehicular assault and reckless driving.
The man, Dawit Kelete, 27, is being held with bail set at $1.2 million and is expected to remain in jail, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said. Two of the charges, vehicular homicide and vehicular assault, are felonies, a spokesman for the prosecuting attorney’s office said.
The Washington State Patrol and F.B.I. were still investigating the matter, and Mr. Kelete could face additional charges, according to a statement from the prosecutor’s office.
The authorities said that Mr. Kelete was driving a white Jaguar XJL when he drove into the protesters “at a high rate of speed” early on Saturday morning, striking two protesters.
One of them, Summer Taylor, 24, of Seattle, died later that day at the hospital. Another protester, Diaz Love, 32, of Portland, Ore., was hospitalized in serious condition.
A sobriety test indicated that Mr. Kelete was not under the influence at the time, according to a police report.
Diaz Love, who, like Summer Taylor, uses nonbinary pronouns, shared a hospital selfie on Facebook this week with a message saying that they were “alive and stable.”
“I cannot believe Summer was murdered,” they wrote. “If they thought this murder would make us back down. They are very wrong. Very wrong.”
The episode followed dozens of similar incidents involving cars striking demonstrators at protests against racism and police brutality, which have taken place across the country in the weeks since George Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25.
It was not always clear which incidents were premeditated and which were prompted by rage as drivers found their routes blocked by protesters.
Mr. Kelete’s lawyer, John Henry Browne, told The Associated Press that Mr. Kelete was “remorseful” over the incident and that “there’s absolutely nothing political about this case whatsoever.”
Mr. Kelete lives with his parents in Seattle, Mr. Browne said.
“I don’t know what happened, but I’m very sorry,” Mr. Kelete’s father, Tekie Kelete, told KOMO-TV. “I’m very sorry to the girl, her family. It’s very sad.”
Mr. Browne did not respond to a request for comment.
Azi Paybarah contributed reporting.
