Saturday 23 January 2021

Watch: Tacoma Police Car Hits, Runs Over Pedestrians During Street Race

Dramatic video shows a Tacoma police vehicle appearing to hit and run over pedestrians at a street race in Washington State. You can see the videos throughout this article, but be forewarned that they are disturbing and also contain profanity.

In this video, you hear engines revving and someone says, “Oh my God.” Police lights whir in the background. It appeared that multiple people were struck with possibly one being run over, although that was not definitively clear. No one was killed in the incident.

Someone swears. Then a police vehicle appears to speed up and drive into multiple people. “He hit those people,” someone says. Multiple people fall down as the squad drives off. “Holy f***,” a person says.

The Tacoma News Tribune spoke to the man who shot the main video. The newspaper gave his name only as Mark. He told the newspaper that he “saw five to six cars spinning in circles on South 9th Street between the intersections of Court A and Pacific Avenue” before the incident.

People “swarmed” the police car to try to “block” it, he told the newspaper. The Tacoma police spokeswoman told the newspaper about 100 people were blocking streets due to the street racers, and the officer used his bullhorn but people started pounding on his windows.

“He was afraid they would break his glass,” she told the newspaper, saying he sped away fearing for his safety; one person went to the hospital with a laceration.

Here’s what you need to know:


Videos Show People Doing ‘Burnouts’ Before the Police Arrived

One Twitter user wrote, “Just witnessed a Tacoma police officer run over a civilian while in pursuit of someone doing burnouts.”

Another video, which you can see above, captured the cars spinning around before police arrived.

However, a man wrote on Twitter, “My wife was there. Apparently there were 10 guys on the cop car trying to bust his windows out when he took off.”

David Begnaud, a CBS News journalist, wrote on Twitter, “Tacoma police now tell CBS News the crowd that gathered at 9th & Pacific Avenue in Tacoma was in excess of 100 people. The crowd was blocking intersections with vehicles. Police say, one officer had lights and sirens on, surrounded by crowd, some banging on windows & trying to break windows of his patrol car. The officer involved drove up the road to a point of safety, and other officers responded to the scene to treat the injured civilian.”


The Car Meet ‘Got Out of Control,’ a Witness Wrote

People wrote that the “car meet” got “out of control.”

One Twitter user wrote, “Car meet at 9th and Pacific downtown has gotten out of control. Cops are swarming, reports of Molotov cocktails being thrown, and a cop car ran through the crowd as bystanders surrounded their car.”

According to KIRO 7, two women said “a group of people were hit by the officer.”

Some people on social media were falsely saying the incident occurred at a “protest,” but it happened during a street race. Heavy.com reached out to Tacoma police for more details.

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