Trucker who nearly struck Minnesota protesters released from jail without charges
MINNEAPOLIS - A truck driver who narrowly missed protesters while driving across a bridge over the weekend is not facing criminal charges as of Tuesday.
The Star Tribune reports Bogdan Vechirko was released from the Hennepin County Jail Tuesday afternoon. He had been arrested over the weekend after his empty tanker truck careened through a crowd marching across the 35W Bridge in Minneapolis.
The county attorney's office had until noon Tuesday to hold Vechirko without charges before he had to be released from custody.
“Investigators are in the process of gathering additional information and answers to aid in the charging decision,” Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said in a statement Tuesday.
A relative claims Vechirko's near-miss was unintentional and it was “not his fault. ... He didn’t mean for it to happen. He didn’t have any intent to harm or do anything bad to anybody.”
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State Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington said Monday that the driver “panicked, and he just kept barreling forward” but did not breach any barriers and was not aiming for anyone.