A man accused of driving a U-Haul truck into a crowd demonstrating in support of the Iranian people in Los Angeles over the weekend was in police custody and potentially facing assault charges, authorities said Monday.
The driver has not been identified and was in the process of being arrested and booked early Monday, said Officer Charles Miller, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department.
“Right now it’s an open traffic investigation,” LAPD Capt. Richard Gabaldon had said earlier. “We’re looking at possible assault with a deadly weapon, the deadly weapon being the vehicle being used.”
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Gabaldon said one man was treated at the scene for minor injuries. Two people were evaluated by paramedics and both declined treatment, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. Police and Mayor Karen Bass have declined to address other questions.
The episode unfolded Sunday afternoon in Westwood, a neighborhood home to the largest Iranian community outside of the country. The U-Haul truck forced demonstrators to scramble out of the way, then pursue it as they tried to reach the driver.
The truck had its window and side mirrors shattered and was stopped several blocks away and surrounded by police cars. ABC7 helicopter footage showed officers keeping the crowd back as demonstrators swarmed the truck, throwing punches at the driver and thrusting flagpoles through the driver's side window.
Police did not give an update on whether the alleged driver was injured in the confrontation.
A banner attached to the truck said “No Shah. No Regime. USA: Don’t Repeat 1953. No Mullah,” an apparent reference to a U.S.-backed coup in that year which toppled then-Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, who had nationalized the country's oil industry. The coup cemented the power of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and lit the fuse for the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which saw Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini usher in the theocracy that still governs the country.
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A huge crowd of demonstrators, some waving the flag of Iran before the Islamic Revolution, had gathered Sunday afternoon along Veteran Avenue to protest against the Iranian government. Police eventually issued a dispersal order, and by 5 p.m. only about a hundred protesters were still in the area, ABC7 reported.
Activists say a crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran has killed more than 530 people. Protesters flooded the streets in Iran's capital of Tehran and its second-largest city again Sunday. The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian currency, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.
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