UPDATED Friday, October 24 — Coast Guard reportedly opened fire on U-Haul truck Thursday night
According to a KTVU News report, at approximately 10 p.m. on Thursday night, Coast Guard police officers opened fire on a U-Haul truck that had reversed direction and was headed toward the bridge to Coast Guard Island in Oakland, near Embarcadero and Livingston Street. The video shows what appears to be a a 10-foot U-Haul truck driving in reverse toward armed law enforcement officers.
According to the report, Coast Guard officials “issued multiple verbal commands” to stop the truck. When the truck continued, the officers opened fire. The driver of the truck then attempted to flee the scene, but was blocked by law enforcement. Kriss Ness, a witness who had been at the protest claimed that the officers fired up to 50 rounds at the vehicle. Ness also said that the protestors had also attempted to stop the driver, who ignored their attempts.
All indications are that the driver was an “independent actor” who was not part of the day-long protest, which was largely peaceful after some tense moments early Thursday morning.
Department of Homeland Security confirmed that the driver was shot in the stomach, and is undergoing mental health evaluations. A bystander was also struck by a bullet fragment. The bystander was treated and released from a local hospital.
The shooting is currently under investigation by the FBI.
Thursday, October 23
Protesters were out this morning responding to federal agents arriving in Alameda for a major immigration enforcement operation in the Bay Area. Around 10:00 a.m., President Trump called off the deployment of federal immigration agents to San Francisco.
About two dozen protesters attempted to block Border Patrol agents from driving onto Coast Guard Island, where the operation is stationed, as early as 5 a.m. on Thursday by placing large rocks across the entrance to the base, according to the KTVU News report. Coast Guard police removed the rocks. By 7 a.m., the group of protesters had increased to hundreds.
Alameda local Jessica Servin had just finished working a 16-hour shift at the hospital where she works as a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist when she arrived at the protest.
“Showing up wasn’t an option this morning,” she told the Alameda Post. “The vibe was one of unity and deep concern for the people who hold our community together, people across all walks of life, generations, and cultures joined together to stand up against this fascist, racist regime and their attempts to divide and torture us.”
While the group was mostly peaceful, some protesters were seen surrounding a truck trying to enter the site at around 7:30 a.m., according to KTVU.
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“Protesters were seen banging on the windows of the truck, and it appeared as though someone might have thrown a hot drink at the truck as well,” the report stated. After that, two officers were then seen throwing flash bangs into the crowd.
Jorge Bautista, a local pastor from Oakland, had a smoke bomb go off in his face. He said he was protesting peacefully. “I came to say we’re here in peace,” he told KTVU. “And he didn’t care. There is nothing else to say, clearly he wanted to cause harm to me.”
Another man was struck by a white SUV which he thought was a Border Patrol vehicle, according to an NBC News report. Reporter Bob Redell said the man was among the protestors who were surrounding the vehicle when the driver ran over his foot.
“We were helping traffic … asking people to be peaceful not to drive through crowds of people,” Matthew Leber of Team Berkeley told NBC News. “And then I started to walk away, and he drove forward and ran over my foot. I was yelling for several seconds, and he didn’t back up.”
NBC’s reporter said he didn’t believe this was intentional and that the driver did back up. “He said something to the effect of ‘I didn’t see him there,’ and then he took off.”
Leber later said that he was feeling OK.
By 8 a.m., about 200 to 300 protesters were singing and chanting in front of the entrance to Coast Guard Island and the overall tone was less tense, as clowns and balloon artists were protesting in the street.
Around 10:00 a.m., Trump called off the deployment of federal immigration agents to San Francisco after speaking with “friends” of his who “live in the area,” as reported by the New York Times.
“The Federal Government was preparing to ‘surge’ San Francisco, California, on Saturday, but friends of mine who live in the area called last night to ask me not to go forward with the surge in that the Mayor, Daniel Lurie, was making substantial progress,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“I spoke to Mayor Lurie last night and he asked, very nicely, that I give him a chance to see if he can turn it around. I told him I think he is making a mistake, because we can do it much faster, and remove the criminals that the Law does not permit him to remove. I told him, ‘It’s an easier process if we do it, faster, stronger, and safer but, let’s see how you do?’ The people of San Francisco have come together on fighting Crime, especially since we began to take charge of that very nasty subject. Great people like Jensen Huang, Marc Benioff, and others have called saying that the future of San Francisco is great. They want to give it a ‘shot.’ Therefore, we will not surge San Francisco on Saturday. Stay tuned!”
Watch the Associated Press footage of the protest on YouTube.
