Peaceful protest against racism ends with hit and run; GoFundMe set up for injured woman

The driver of a red car struck two protesters near the intersection of 4^th and Walnut and proceeded North on Walnut Street at a high rate of speed before turning right on 6^th Street throwing the protesters from the vehicle.

A woman was hanging onto the hood of the car as the woman sped up, and was later bleeding after being flung into the street. Medics attended to the injured woman who was put into an ambulance and taken to a hospital. A protest sign with a peace sign on it lay in the street near a pool of blood reading, “No Justice, No Peace.”

A man also hung onto the car, and was also thrown into the street, but he wasn’t seriously injured according to witnesses.

Members of the Bloomington Police Department quickly responded to the scene, and drove down 6^th Street looking for the suspect vehicle, but failed to immediately locate it.

Protesters had chased the vehicle on foot, and in vehicles, but it was too late to catch it, and one protester fell in an alley between 6^th and 7^th Street.

A Bloomington Police Evidence Technician photographed the scene as members of the Bloomington Police Department interviewed witnesses. Members of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office also responded, and some had been on security detail on the courthouse square, which was the site of recent protests for George Floyd, and others killed by police. The courthouse grounds are closed to the public at 10 p.m. nightly.

Protesters had held a Bloomington community for Vauhxx Booker, who was assaulted at Lake Monroe on the 4^th of July in what’s been described as an attempted lynching. Protesters are demanding that Monroe County Prosecutor Erika Oliphant prosecute members of the group who assaulted Booker and that the DNR officers that didn’t arrest the suspects in his assault be fired by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.

Protesters peacefully marched and protested for several hours before the hit and run.

A GoFundMe has been set up for the woman who was carried on the hood of the car for blocks before being slung onto the street.

This story will be updated.