Fresh Anti-Police Protest Erupts In US After Officer Rams Car Into Street Racers - Reports

At least 200 people attended a demonstration in the US city of Tacoma late on Sunday in protest of an officer ramming an SUV into a crowd of pedestrians the night before, local media reported

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th January, 2021) At least 200 people attended a demonstration in the US city of Tacoma late on Sunday in protest of an officer ramming an SUV into a crowd of pedestrians the night before, local media reported.

On Saturday night, a Tacoma police officer drove a car into a crowd of street racers, running over one person and leaving two injured. Video footage from the scene captured a heavily crowded street with spots of smoke as the SUV was struggling to drive out of a group of people blocking its way. Tacoma is a port city in Washington state, not far from Seattle.

As reported by the Seattle Times, people gathered at the site of the incident around 7 p.m. (03:00, Monday GMT), demanding that the responsible police officer be fired and tried.

Some held signs reading "Defund TPD" and "Justice for Manuel Ellis." Ellis was a black man who died in police custody last March, igniting a wave of Black Lives Matter protests.

In the next hour, the protest grew in number and began featuring racial justice slogans such as "Whose Lives Matter? Black Lives Matter," according to the report. Protesters reportedly barricaded streets and set a trash can on fire. One person could be seen carrying a rifle, the newspaper said.

The group then began marching across the city center, with separate members breaking windows and spray-painting graffiti on the buildings, according to the report. The demonstration made a stop near a local jail, shouting things to people inside, but police reportedly refrained from intervening.