Woman who drove into counter-protesters in Southern California had asked police for help with hostile crowd: lawyer

A woman who drove into counter-protesters at a Southern California antiracism rally that she organized was fleeing a hostile crowd and had asked for help from the police, her lawyer said Monday.

Tatiana Turner, 40, was charged with murder and assault with a deadly weapon Tuesday after hitting two people when she allegedly drove through a pro-Trump counter-protest.

California driver plows through pro-Trump rally, charged with attempted murder

But murder and assault were not her goal, her attorney said Monday. Escape was.

“She wasn’t trying to hit anybody,” attorney Ludlow Creary II told the Associated Press. “She wasn’t trying to hurt anybody.”

On the contrary, he said, Turner feared for her own life when a hostile crowd surrounded her car.

She had been one of the planners of the march against systemic racism and police brutality, along with the Urban Organizers Coalition outside the Yorba Linda Library, about 30 miles southeast of Los Angeles, AP said.

American-flag-waving counter-protesters clad in Trump swag and outnumbering Turner’s group, confronted them, her attorney told the court. Fisticuffs broke out.

Turner called police after seeing firearms but “got the runaround,” Creary said. She then asked deputies patrolling the crowd for help.

“Sheriff’s deputies on scene didn’t do anything, and the crowd of Trump supporters grew,” Creary said. “It essentially was a hostile environment.”

While prosecutors said they would investigate those allegations, they didn’t buy the story outright, and Turner was ordered held on $1 million bail.

With News Wire Services