A woman who drove through a protest in Denver on Thursday appeared to deliberately try to run over a young black man, swerving directly at him and knocking him to the ground, according to a video of the incident.
The protest was one of many that have broken out nationwide over the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed by police in Minneapolis after an officer pushed a knee into his neck as he repeatedly said, "I can't breathe."
Video of the incident shows a car driving through the crowd, with the young man clutching onto the hood. He falls off the hood, landing on his feet.
The car then sharply turns, knocking him to the ground, before speeding away in the other direction.
(Warning: This video is disturbing.)
Downtown denver. Some girl turned around to run this guy over #GeorgeFloyd #icantbreathe #downtowndenver #denver
Protesters can be heard screaming in horror as the car swerves, and one yells to the man, "Watch out!"
Anabel Escobar, the 29-year-old who filmed the incident, told BuzzFeed News the person in the car was trying to drive down the street where the protesters were demonstrating. Protesters tried to block the car, but the driver "continued to accelerate into the group of people," Escobar said.
"In order to not get ran over, the guy in the video jumped on her car. She keeps accelerating with him on the car, and when he could, he jumped off," she said. "Instead of driving forward to get out, she made a hard right to come back toward the protesters and hit the guy."
A spokesperson for the Denver Police Department told BuzzFeed News it is "aware of the incident" and is "looking for the victim as well as the driver."
They really tried to kill me cause I’m protecting my people. Cause I said my black life matters. We still riding. Y’all can’t stop us. #BlackLivesMatter #RIPGeorgeFloyd #denver #minneapolisriots https://t.co/QdLopjATBE
On Twitter, Maximilian Bailey identified himself as the man who got hit. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BuzzFeed News.
"They really tried to kill me cause I’m protecting my people. Cause I said my black life matters," Bailey tweeted. "We still riding. Y’all can’t stop us."
Bailey said he jumped on the car after the driver had hit his sister and "was trying to run into 5 of my friends as we protested peacefully."
"I jumped on cause I didn’t really feel like getting ran over," he tweeted. "Not super effective considering she had a steering wheel and could turn back and run me over on purpose."
"I thought she’d see she’d really hurt someone & stop," he added. "She did not."
Bailey said he and his sister were not seriously injured in the incident, "just cut up and bruised."
In a series of tweets, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said he was "absolutely shocked by video evidence of a motorist attempting to run over a protestor."
"Coloradans are better than this," Polis said. "I share the immense anguish we all feel about the unjust murder of George Floyd. But let me be clear, senseless violence will never be healed by more violence."
This isn't the first time protesters have been put in grave danger by individuals deliberately driving through demonstrations.
At the 2017 "Unite the Right" protest in Charlottesville, a white supremacist plowed through the crowd in his car, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. He was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
In August, several Jewish protesters were injured by a prison guard who drove through the crowd in a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement truck. Police did not intervene, and he was not arrested.