On Saturday, a driver pulled a gun on Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) protesters and ran over and injured two people, witnesses say.
Anti-pipeline protesters were holding a prayer ceremony near the entrance to the construction site and obstructing traffic on a public road. A man in a flatbed truck driving down the road brandished his a pistol and screamed, “This is my way home!”
“Go around!” the protesters shouted back. “We’re peaceful! We don’t have guns!” Multiple videos shot by participants show the protesters surrounding the truck and holding their hands up. Several kneel and pray. “We love you! We care for you!” someone shouts at the man.
Man plowed through a peaceful prayer ceremony waving a gun, injuring 2 people then proceeded to fire 7 shots into the air. #standingrock pic.twitter.com/HRsxW2IJZG
— ELIZABETH (@lillabet1952) November 13, 2016
The unknown man then continued to drive slowly into the crowd. “There’s someone under the car!” a demonstrator shouted, after a person trapped under the car let out a loud cry, witnesses say.
Another protestor, Vana Dee Worthy, a Sioux woman from Cannon Ball, North Dakota, had her feet run over by the car’s tires. In the ensuing melee, her hand was slashed open, and she later received three stitches. “My feet are okay from him running me over,” she says.
When the man continued driving, another protester shouted, “Tweet this out!…Let everybody know! That man just ran over a peaceful [water] protector, two of them!” Witnesses say the man fired seven shots with a gun into the air.
The name of Four Square Concrete, a New Jersey-based company, was on the side of the man’s truck. Four Square Concrete did not respond to questions about whether it employs the man and if he works on the Dakota Access Pipeline. Sources on the scene said they believe the man is a DAPL employee. Construction on the pipeline is more than 95 percent complete.
The Morton County Sheriffs Department arrested 33 protesters over the weekend for obstructing the highway, slashing police car tires, and vandalizing DAPL bulldozers. The department didn’t respond when asked if they are seeking to question or charge the as-yet-unidentified man who brandished the gun and allegedly injured two protesters. Less than two weeks ago, the sheriffs department released a DAPL employee who had pointed a rifle at protesters, saying he was the “victim” of an incident in which he acted in self-defense.
