An old video of a truck attempting to ram into a group of protesters is circulating with false claims that it shows pro-Palestinian protesters being run over by a truck in the United States.
BOOM found that the video dates back to 2020 and captures an incident where a truck driver collided with a crowd protesting against the death of George Floyd on Tulsa's Interstate 244 in US.
According to recent news reports, Palestinian Health Minister Mai Al Kaila alleged that the Israeli army used bulldozers to crush civilians near the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. The ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas has resulted in the death of over 10,000 people, leaving numerous civilians severely wounded and homeless.
The video is graphic in nature. Viewers discretion advised.
The video is being shared with a caption, "Breaking A truck drives through a crowd of pro Palestine protesters. They were blocking the freeway in Los Angeles. GRAPHIC WARNING".
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Fact Check
BOOM conducted a reverse image search on a keyframe from the viral video and found an article featuring the same video on a post by a user named Mike Collier on X platform.
The user posted the video on June 1, 2020, with the caption, "Warning: Graphic images/language. Truck driving through protestors on I-244."
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We ran a keyword search on YouTube related to the information and found multiple news reports from June 2020 about the video.
The video was aired on 2 News Oklahoma's official YouTube channel on June 1, 2020, with the description, "Driver hits protesters in crowd at Black Lives Matter rally in Tulsa".
A report published by Associated Press on June 2, 2020, stated that the man behind the wheels made an intentional effort to drive through the protest.
An excerpt from the report reads, "Several people were injured after a pickup truck drove through a crowd gathered on a Tulsa interstate protesting the death of George Floyd, a protest that occurred on the 99th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. One of the organizers of the Black Lives Matter rally, Rev. Eric Gill of Metropolitan Baptist Church, said the man driving the red truck “made an intentional effort to drive through” the crowd protesting on Tulsa Interstate 244 on Sunday."
Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler, in July 2020, made an announcement that his office would not pursue charges against the truck driver who drove through a crowd on I-244 during a protest on May 31, 2020.
According to a report by Public Radio Tulsa from July 24, 2020, "Kunzweiler said in a memo released Thursday that the driver, his wife, and his two children, were all "in a state of immediate fear for their safety" inside the truck and were the victims of a "violent and unprovoked attack by multiple individuals who unnecessarily escalated an already dangerous circumstance by obstructing an interstate highway."
According to the report, the demonstration, was illegally held on an interstate highway, causing obstruction.
In an interview with Public Radio Tulsa, Kunzweiler further mentioned that the initial problematic actions of the day occurred as protesters did not follow the law enforcement-approved route for their demonstration and chose to enter I-244 instead.
