State authorities said Monday that the driver of a tanker truck did not intend to hit anyone when he drove onto the Interstate 35W Bridge in Minneapolis and sent protesters running for their lives.
Government officials say trucker Bogdan Vechirko may not have realized that I-35W and other metro interstates had been closed as part of the ongoing unrest sparked by the death of George Floyd last week in police detention.
State Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington said Vechirko, driving an empty fuel tanker truck from Interstate 94 onto northbound 35W, was speeding but did not go around any barricades and was not acting intentionally while narrowly missing everyone in the crowd.
As Harrington was making his comments at a midday news conference, Vechirko, 35, of Otsego, remained jailed on suspicion of assault but had not been charged.
The driver "panicked, and he just kept barreling forward," Harrington said. When Vechirko saw a woman on her bike fall in front of him, he slammed on his brakes and came to a sliding stop, the commissioner said.
"We don't have any information that makes this seem like this was an intentional act," he said. "It wasn't that he went around the barricades to get to the protest."
Harrington's conclusion about Vechirko's motives runs counter to that of several people on the bridge, including Drew Valley, who said, "He wasn't stopping. He was beeping loudly and driving into a crowd of people.
"That's the same kind of malice that brought us here. It's a callous disregard for someone's humanity."