A white pickup truck aggressively swerved through a crowd of about 50 protesters while they were in front of the Rite Aid on Healdsburg Avenue during a youth anti-racism march on June 26. According to the Healdsburg Police Department, multiple people reported the incident and it is now an open investigation.
While march organizer Izabel Soto, a junior at Healdsburg High School, said nobody was hit, it was nonetheless surprising to the group of peaceful families and students protesting.
“As we were walking past Rite Aid the first white truck startled everyone. We were pretty close to the sidewalk, so we weren’t blocking the whole road and it was about maybe 50 of us. It would’ve taken less than one minute for us to get out of the way for cars to be able to pass by,” Soto said.
The white truck allegedly accelerated behind the group of protestors, startling the crowd. When asked if the driver perhaps wasn’t paying attention or texting, Soto said it seemed like the driver was doing it on purpose.
“All I heard was a big truck trying to accelerate really fast towards us, swerving around the people and the cars that were nearby. He swerved off super fast,” Soto said, noting that while no one was hurt, people were frightened.
“Once the truck almost hit us, I turned around to look at my sister — she’s only 9 years old — and the fear in her eyes just broke my heart,” Soto said. “She’s my everything, my little sister, and it broke my heart. I never want to experience anything like that ever again, that’s why I am going to keep fighting for her.”
There were similar reports of the incident on the public Facebook group, “What’s Happening Healdsburg.” One resident posted on the page and said, “Some guy in a lifted white truck with blue lights and white decals just attempted to plow through the protesters right in front of Rotten Robbie’s, burning rubber in the intersection.”
The same resident also posted a video in the comments section of her post of another pickup truck that appeared to accelerate toward the crowd, stop, swerve around a protester and drive away.
“I am really confused that somebody would want to almost run us over when all we’re doing is using our voices,” Soto said. “This was a peaceful protest from the beginning. We had no plans of destroying anything or vandalizing anything, or throwing anything at cars or breaking anything, this was just to spread awareness and to make sure that the youth know that our voices need to be heard and we need to use our voices to make a change.”
The group of protestors started at Healdsburg High School and made their way to the Plaza and down Center Street, where they stopped at the police department. Children carried handmade signs, people handed out bottles of water and masks and volunteers from Corazón Healdsburg carried clipboards and helped people with voter registration.
Soto said at first she thought the white truck driver was perhaps angry that there were some people in the road.
“But I was talking to other people and they were telling me that they had a complication with this person before and that he was doing it on purpose. I’m not sure if that was his intention or not, but I’ve heard from different people that he has been doing this before,” Soto said.
She said she understands if people are trying to get somewhere, but if they want to pass protesters, they should do it safely and slowly.
“There were children and families there,” she said.
Multiple people have reported the incident to the police.
Healdsburg Police Department Sgt. John Haviland said an investigation into the incident has been opened and that the police department has received a few witness accounts.
“We encourage anyone with any information to call the police department,” Haviland said.
Galvanizing a younger generation
Before the start of Friday’s march, Soto said the goal of the event was to spread awareness and engage younger community members in civic action.
“I hope to accomplish awareness. To show awareness to the community and to have Generation Z (those born between 1997 and 2012) unite together to fight for this movement and to make a change,” she said.
Soto had attended the first two community protests earlier this month and said seeing people speak for change and equality inspired her to organize her own youth demonstration.
While Millennials — twenty-somethings and those in their 30s — have grown up and come to age during tumultuous times, so too has the following generation, and many who are now teenagers are finding their voice.
“Generation Z is the future. We can’t stay silent, we have to speak up, say something about it or else there’s never going to be any change,” Soto said.
Soto’s friend and another participant in the rally, Maria Vasquez, echoed her thoughts.
“We are the future. We are the ones that are going to be voting soon, so we need to be the leaders, we’re going to be the ones to make the change and do what’s right,” Vasquez said.
Soto said she wants a future for herself and her sister where everyone is accepted no matter what their skin color may be.
“I want my future to accept everyone no matter their skin color, what they look like, where they come from,” she said, noting that she has experienced racism in Healdsburg in school and in everyday life.
“In high school there’s like little jokes going on. They kind of hide it behind the lines and you have to read into it, but it does happen. It does hurt when they make those comments even if it’s just a joke,” Soto said.
She also recalled a time when she was 6 years old and saw her mother being treated roughly by a police officer.
“I was in the back of the car and my mom was driving and she got pulled over to the side. My mom stepped out of the car to talk to the police officer and I saw the cop grab my mom by the neck and slam her head on the cop car. As a little girl I didn’t understand the situation and what was going on, but I saw my mom hurting. I realized as I got older that not every cop was bad, but for a long time I did question myself, ‘Is that cop going to hurt me?,’ ‘Are they going to hurt my sisters?’ It was a very scary moment for me,” she said.
Soto hopes to continue the dialogue on racial injustice with a virtual protest over Zoom with a group of panelists. She said she wants to give the opportunity for residents to share their experiences with race and inequality.
“There is still racism here. This is not the perfect little town that everybody thinks it is,” Soto said.
Anyone with information regarding the June 26 truck incident is encouraged to call the Healdsburg Police Department at 707-431-3377.
