A Pennsylvania man who hit a protester after driving his car through a street filled with protest was charged with a misdemeanor, the second such incident at a demonstration demanding justice after a Pittsburgh police officer shot and killed 17-year-old Antwon Rose, Jr.
According to the Tribune-Review, 69-year-old Ronald V. Hinerman’s silver Hyundai came to an intersection along Route 686 in North Versailles, Penn., after police closed the road to traffic to allow protesters to have “unimpeded movement.”
Hinerman drove up to the protest and continued to drive through, hitting 21-year-old Jason Numley, knocking him onto the hood of Hinerman’s car and back into the middle of the intersection. Police called an ambulance for Numley, who said he was injured but insisted on staying at the protest, according to the criminal complaint.
Hinerman was arrested on a charge of recklessly endangering another person, a misdemeanor, but was shuttled from the police department to the local hospital after he complained of an undisclosed health problem which was likely related to being a 69-year-old man going through a protest or not wanting to go to jail.
A little more than a week earlier, Bell Acres, Penn., council member Gregory Wagner was charged with recklessly endangering lives and the same crime after he drove his Mercedes-Benz the wrong way through a crowd of protesters on Pittsburgh’s north shore, according to WTAE.
At least six states have introduced or passed bills that allow drivers to hit protesters if the driver did not do so willfully, according to CNN.
That number is only surpassed by the 50 states where police have been allowed to shoot black people.