Last summer, a driver in a red pickup truck accelerated through a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters in Tampa's Hyde Park Village and struck and injured local organizer Jae Passmore. Despite multiple videos and witnesses, the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office now says no charges will be filed.
Following a four month investigation that involved the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Tampa Police Department, the State Attorney’s Office announced Friday that there isn’t sufficient evidence to press charges.
“Despite a thorough examination of the facts, extensive analysis of available video evidence, and interviews with many witnesses across multiple states, we could find no evidence to prove the identity of the driver of that pickup truck,” said Grayson Kamm, Chief Communications Officer for the State Attorney’s Office in an email. “The identity of the driver is an essential element necessary to prove beyond a reasonable doubt who committed the crime. Without this information, and having no other credible investigative leads, we have closed our investigation without the ability to pursue criminal charges.”
UNREAL. This Tampa driver purposefully STRUCK a peaceful BLM protestor. Jae suffered a concussion and other injuries! @TampaPD knows the driver's identity but refuses to provide it citing an "open investigation." #BlackTwitter detectives, who can find the truck driver's identity? pic.twitter.com/j1oPnWABRm
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) August 21, 2020
The office says the investigation involved interviews with 13 witnesses, multiple photo lineups, and analysis of five known videos related to the case. Though they were able to identify the owner of the truck, the State Attorney’s Office says it was not able to prove this individual was also the driver involved in the incident.
“Investigators quickly located the registered owner of the truck. The registered owner refused to be interviewed or cooperate,” said Kamm. “Under Florida law, for crimes such as Aggravated Battery, identifying the registered owner is not the same as identifying the person behind the wheel when the incident happened. To charge a person with a crime, prosecutors must be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the suspect was the person controlling the vehicle at the time.”
One witness, who has since moved to Boston, was unable to identify the driver in a photo lineup. Investigators were also unable to identify other witnesses for questioning because of face coverings and because other protesters refused to cooperate, says the State Attorney’s Office.
“Every agency involved has worked diligently on this case—turning your vehicle into a weapon can never be tolerated in our community,” said Kamm. “Because no witness has been able to identify the driver, however, our office has ended its investigation at this time. We can and would reopen the case if new information is received in the future.”
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On June 21, roughly 20 Black Lives Matter protesters marched through Hyde Park Village, blocking the intersection of West Swann and South Rome avenues. A dispatch report from 3:47 p.m. stated “Car drove through protest.” Videos from the incident show the driver crossing over the median and striking Passmore, who says she suffered a concussion and injuries to her hip and right leg.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, a manager who worked at the nearby Irish 31 pub house approached Tampa Police officers with information about the driver. However, the officers told her they “wouldn’t be contacting demonstrators.”
In August, Tallahassee civil rights attorney Ben Crump—who’s represented the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown—was added to the legal team representing.
Passmore's legal team could not be reached before publication, we'll update this post with any new comments.
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This article appears in Oct 29 – Nov 4, 2020.