The terrifying scene of a tanker truck driving at full speed through a massive protest crowd on a highway bridge was captured by cameras Sunday evening. “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh,” the anchor on TV station KSTP said during live coverage as the crowd on the I35W bridge began to part and the truck rolled through without stopping. “Oh, this is bad!” Protesters then ran back to surround the vehicle. The Minnesota Department of Public Safety tweeted afterward: “Very disturbing actions by a truck driver on I-35W, inciting a crowd of peaceful demonstrators. The truck driver was injured & taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries. He is under arrest. It doesn’t appear any protesters were hit by the truck.”
Authorities later identified the driver as Bogdan Vechirko, a contractor for the trucking company Ken Advantage. Verchirko—a small-time Trump MAGA PAC donor who was accused of domestic violence in 2012 only to plead guilty to disorderly conduct—was booked into Hennepin County Jail, and the DPS said it would be investigating the incident “as a criminal matter.” The trucking company said it would cooperate fully with the investigation.