A truck driver who drove his truck into a group of people protesting in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder was charged Thursday. Hennepin County prosecutors charged Bogdan Vechirko, with making threats of violence, a felony, and criminal vehicular operation, a gross misdemeanor, the Star Tribune reported. Prosecutors claim that Vechirko sought to “scare” protesters out of his path and could have seen them with plenty of time to stop before his truck reached them.
Vechirko, 35, drove on the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River while a large group of people protested. No one was seriously hurt during the assault, although a criminal complaint alleges one protester suffered abrasions as she got out the path of the truck’s path.
Vechirko told investigators he was didn’t mean to drive into the protest or hurt anyone. Authorities had closed area highways as a precaution, however, a traffic camera showed that the trucker entered the downtown freeway system from a ramp that wasn’t barricaded.
According to his lawyer Mark Solheim, Vechirko saw the crowd on the bridge “relied on his professional instinct and training to avoid a hard brake that could have jackknifed the truck and could have seriously injured or killed thousands of people, and instead slowed his vehicle while maneuvering through the parted crowd.”
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