LOS ANGELES – The organizer of a demonstration in Southern California against police brutality and racism was charged Tuesday with attempted murder for driving his car at protesters and crushing a woman’s head.
Tatiana Turner intentionally entered a crowd of Supporters of President Donald Trump with the intention of killing and also seriously wounded a guy who broke his leg, Orange County prosecutors said.
“She placed her vehicle to use as a backup weapon and used the vehicle as a fatal weapon, willing to hurt and kill those on her way,” District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement.
A defense attorney said Turner had unsuccessfully tried to get help from MPs Saturday in Yorba Linda after his organization hit a hostile crowd.
Turner saw others with guns and feared for his life when he was delivered to his car blocked by Trump supporters, said lawyer Ludlow Creary II, who sought to escape and had no goal of hitting anyone.
“There were movements that made her worry about her life and that’s when she accelerated,” Creary said.
Turner, 40, made his first court appearance away from a criminal and was sentenced to $1 million bail. A plea of non-guilty filed on your behalf through your attorney.
The incident is one of more than a hundred in which motorists have been involved in protests since last May, following protests against police brutality that have taken place across the country following the murder of George Floyd through a Minneapolis officer, according to Ari Weil, deputy director. Chicago Project on Security and Threats at the University of Chicago.
The vast majority of known cases through Weil concerned motorists who clashed with those protesting for reasons aligned with the Black Lives Matter movement, said Weil, who only knows another case in which this was not the case when one man hit another. meeting police officers in Eaton, Colorado, in July.
“He’s a guy who bites a dog with the same old pattern,” said Jody Armour, a law professor at the University of Southern California.
Armour said it might be difficult for prosecutors to find that Turner tried to kill someone because he demands that he seem more reckless or negligent.
“When it is reported about attempted murder, it is communicating about a requirement that the state prove that Array . . . “He says a lot about his motivations, his character, his mood. It’s a trial. It’s an ethical judgment. “
Prosecutors claim that. The allegation of the crime indicated that Turner had a “specific intention to kill” the woman he ran over.
The un named victim. Authorities said she was hospitalized with serious injuries and is expected to survive.
Turner, who has a history of criminals for drug sales and domestic violence, is also charged with six counts of attack with a deadly weapon, adding a charge of serious physical harm, chaos and two counts of pepper spray by a criminal.
Turner’s group, the Coalition of Urban Organizers, had planned a nonviolent march Saturday at the Yorba Linda Library, about 48 kilometres southeast of Los Angeles, but they were temporarily outnumbered and threatened by the other group, Creary said.
The district attorney, however, called Turner’s organization “professional militant organizers. “Turner noticed in videos waving a cane and spraying what gave the impression of being pepper spray before the protest. Some members of his organization wore helmets and insurrection shields.
Creary said the rates were excessive.
“In my opinion, this is a message for activists going to the CB,” Creary said. “Let them know that they will push the full scope of the law opposed to the militants. Again, it’s a component”. of the hostile environment.
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