Bloomington PD searching for car, occupants after protesters struck
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (WISH) — Bloomington police have released photos of two people and a car believed to be involved in a Monday night incident that resulted in two protesters being thrown from a vehicle and injured on Monday night.
BPD said officers were called just before 9:30 p.m. Monday to Walnut and Fourth streets, a few blocks from where protesters had gathered in support of Vauhxx Booker. He says he was injured in a racially motivated attack July 4 at Monroe Lake south of Bloomington.
Two people were injured. A man got abrasions to his arms, but perhaps the most severely injured was 29-year-old Chaz Mottinger, who was knocked unconscious and taken to the hospital.
Mottinger is seen in a social media video jumping onto the hood of a red car when it started to drive through the crowd. Her friend, Chelsea Schoch, said it was the only way she could avoid getting run over.
“They started nudging forward. They started doing it in such a way it was like surging,” Schoch said.
“Chaz and other people were standing in the front of the car telling the woman and the man to stop moving forward. That in less than a minute there would be a clear, safe pathway to move through,” Schoch said. “She was yelling at them to stop, to be safe and to stop.”
Police say a passenger in the car got out to remove an electric scooter from the road, then Mottinger was standing in front of the car with her hands on the hood.
The car then accelerated after Mottinger jumped on the hood. A man, who has not been identified, also clung the side of it. They were on the car until it turned onto eastbound Sixth Street, where they fell off of the vehicle.
Other social media videos also captured the incident.
“The guy who got out of the car, he was filled with rage, it was very clear. I could not get a clear picture on the woman,” Schoch said. “They knew what was ahead of them and they had the intention to move over those people and into the crowd.”
“The woman and the man in the red car intentionally weaponized their vehicle as they were moving into the crowd,” Schoch said.
Schoch approached her friend who was laying on the ground after falling from the car.
“When we go to the scene she was lying on the ground with blood pouring out of her. Like, it was terrifying,” Schoch said.
She said protesters, who gathered again Tuesday night in downtown Bloomington, also were calling for the arrest of the people who were in the red car.
A crowd of nearly 500 protesters gathered Tuesday around the Monroe County Courthouse square for a second night in downtown Bloomington. News 8’s Demie Johnson captured them in a Facebook Live post.
Before sunset Tuesday, the group marched through downtown streets before they stopped in front of the Charlotte Zietlow Justice Center. At the center, protesters chanted and demanding accountability from law enforcement, and staged a “die in,” lying on the street in front of the center. The protest ended peacefully just before 10 p.m. Tuesday.
Organizers said they will continue until everyone involved in Booker’s case is prosecuted and law enforcement is held accountable for not acting sooner. The group did not indicate whether it would have a third night of protests on Wednesday.
Police on Monday had been monitoring traffic and the protesters, but did not show up to the area Tuesday until after 10 p.m.
Anyone with information was asked to call Bloomington Police Department at 812-339-4477.
