Car drives into Seattle protest; driver shoots 27-year-old male protester

Updated 6/9/2020

A car sped into Seattle protesters on Sunday evening in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, just before 9 p.m.

As the driver, Nikolas Fernandez, 31, sped into the crowd, a protester managed to launch himself into the driver's side window, his legs dangling outside the car. The protester's aim was to stop the car from ramming into the crowd.

That protester, Daniel Gregory, grabbed the steering wheel. The car still moving, Fernandez shot Gregory, 27, in the arm.

Gregory was transported to Harborview Medical Center where he is in satisfactory condition.

“My whole thing was to protect those people,” Gregory told Alex Garland, a photographer. Garland posted a video of a brief interview with Gregory to Twitter.

Fernandez wore a black hoodie with an American flag on the back. He got out of the car brandishing a weapon. Witnesses believed it was a Taser gun, which stuns people with electric nodes, but Seattle police said on Twitter that it was a gun.

Fernandez is now in custody, according to Seattle Police. The gun has been recovered.

The incident took place at Pike and 11th.

Ryan Teed, a medic, described seeing the driver step out of the car, holding a weapon.

“He waved it, pointed it at everyone, myself included,” Teed said. Teed believed the gun was a Taser.

“It looked like the crowd sorta got him, and turned him over to the police. There was an injury on the ground here. It looked to me like he was hit by a car. Right shoulder injury. Medics surrounded that guy, treated him, and then we marched him, clearing the street, to the next intersection.

“We got there just as an ambulance was pulling in, and he got in with his fist in the air.

“He was okay.”

Garland, the photographer, took to Twitter to describe what took place: “With the help of other medics I got a tourniquet on his arm. Street medics were on the spot with gauze and pressure.”

Gregory was transported to Harborview by Seattle Fire.

Update: An earlier version of this story included a quote stating that the crowd turned the gunman over to police. Video footage shows the man running directly to the police line.