LOS ANGELES — A man accused of steering a U-Haul truck toward a Los Angeles demonstration over the weekend in support of Iran’s protesters was arrested on suspicion of reckless driving, but was not formally charged and was released Monday, authorities said.
The Los Angeles Police Department said in a press release that officers monitoring a protest Sunday stopped the box truck and directed the driver to turn around as he was approaching a large crowd. Video posted on social media showed the truck speeding down a road where protesters were gathered on the sidewalk, with some shouting in surprise.
After police stopped the truck, the department said protesters descended on it, tore off a banner and surrounded the driver. The banner’s message included: “No Shah. No Regime. USA: Don’t Repeat 1953. No Mullah.” The department said the driver then drove toward a group of officers and that demonstrators jumped out of the way as the incident unfolded.
Police said officers formed a line between the crowd and the driver before taking him into custody. Police initially said one person was hit by the truck, but on Monday the department said no one was struck.
The fire department said two people declined treatment after paramedics evaluated them at the scene.
The banner’s wording was described as an apparent reference to the 1953 U.S.-backed coup that toppled then-Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, who had nationalized Iran’s oil industry. The coup cemented the shah’s power and helped set the stage for the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the AP report said, when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini led the change that brought the current theocracy.
From exile in the United States, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of the shah who fled Iran before the Islamic Revolution, has called on Iranians to join the demonstrations, the AP report said. The AP also reported that some Iranian demonstrators chanted pro-shah slogans that were once punishable by death.
The protesters gathered Sunday afternoon in Westwood, a Los Angeles neighborhood described as home to the largest Iranian community outside the country. Some demonstrators waved Iran’s lion and sun flag, an emblem of Iran’s former ruler, the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
The city attorney’s office did not immediately respond to the AP’s requests for information about possible charges, according to the report. Police said the suspect was arrested on suspicion of reckless driving, had not yet been officially charged and was released Monday.
Investigators searched the truck, “with nothing significant being found,” police said. ABC7 helicopter footage, described by the AP, showed officers keeping the crowd at bay while demonstrators swarmed the truck, shattered its windshield and window and pushed flagpoles into the vehicle.
The AP report said the incident occurred amid demonstrations tied to Iran’s unrest. It reported that U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Iran with military action over what he characterized as the country’s crackdown on protesters, and that activists said nationwide protests in Iran had left nearly 600 dead across the country.