A Trump supporter was arrested after driving his car into a crowd of protesters near the West Palm Beach Tesla dealership. Dutil, who goes by Andy on Facebook, is a MAGA guy. According to his Facebook page, Dutil is a US Army Corps of Engineers civil engineer.
The protest was one of several across the country in opposition to Tesla founder Elon Musk, who has taken a chainsaw to our government and fired thousands of federal workers.
Authorities say Andrew Dutil drove his car over the curb and onto the sidewalk where protesters were gathered at the dealership, causing them to scramble.
NBC News reports:
Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said deputies went to a planned protest at a West Palm Beach dealership on Saturday, where suspect Andrew Dutil drove onto the curb and slowly toward the protesters. There were no injuries.
"The protestors had to move out of the way in order to avoid being struck by the vehicle," the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Court records show Dutil, who is being held in Palm Beach County Jail, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill. It is not clear if he has retained a lawyer or when he is due to appear in court.
The Palm Beach Post reported that Dutil was driving a black Nissan SUV and that the crowd numbered more than 100.
"He drove into a crowd of senior citizens. Everybody was able to move out, but two older women were really almost clipped. We immediately called the cops," Mark Offerman, from the Democratic Progressive Caucus Palm Beach County, which organized the protest, told the newspaper.
In 2017, Heather Heyer was killed when James Alex Fields Jr. plowed his car into protesters at the infamous 'Unite the Right' rally.
