A St. Louis motorist was charged Thursday after he allegedly drove his car through a group of people protesting a police shooting, injuring three.
Mark Colao, 59, faces charges of resisting arrest by fleeing, a felony; as well as misdemeanor charges of leaving the scene of an accident and operating a vehicle in a careless and imprudent manner.
As CBS, with contribution by the Associated Press, reports, three people suffered minor injuries during the Wednesday-night incident while they were hosting a candlelight vigil and protest in honor of Kiwi Herring, a transgender woman who was shot dead by police earlier this week after officers responded to a call about someone with a knife. Authorities said that Herring stabbed a neighbor before police were called. When officers responded, she also turned the knife on an officer, injuring him as well, police said.
The neighbor was hospitalized with a collapsed lung and cuts to his face, hand and body. Herring’s partner, Kristy Lynn Thompson, who, authorities said, handed Herring the knife used in the attack, was charged with assault and armed criminal action.
The vigil in Herring’s honor began peacefully, but witnesses and police accounts about what happened at the time a car drove into the crowd vary.
Police say that the driver pulled to a stop, honked and attempted to drive around the protesters before some of them began surrounding the car and hitting it with their hands and a flagpole. The protesters who were injured—two women and a man—jumped onto the car and then fell off when the driver pulled away, police spokesperson Schron Jackson told CBS-AP.
However, witness Heather De Mian, who was taking video of the protest, told a different story.
“I looked up and saw the car pushing through protesters,” De Mian told the news site. “I could see this car was being aggressive, so other protesters were running up to try to stop it.”
Another witness, Keith Rose, said the driver had his middle fingers up before he accelerated through the crowd.
Read more at CBS News.
