Watch: Punk's Car Ruined After Bystander Turns the Tables on His Dangerous Firework Stunt
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
Protests against perceived “systemic racism” across the country erupted with continued violence over the summer of 2020.
In one case, a person in a car in Riverside, California, threw a firework into the middle of a protest.
Someone in the crowd responded by throwing the firework back into the person’s vehicle, where it then exploded.
Police recently released a video of the June 1, 2020, incident and later announced that they had apprehended a suspect in the case — the car’s driver:
Driver in Riverside lights a firework in the middle of a protest — but then a person from the crowd tosses the firework back into the vehicle, where it explodes https://t.co/oc9E7bdWst pic.twitter.com/9ZuGTC4zA8
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) June 26, 2020
According to KABC-TV, the Riverside Police Department said that a “group of onlookers and the suspect driver” assaulted the person who had thrown the firework back into the vehicle.
From the video, police were able to identify the culprit as 20-year-old Gabriel Castillo, who was on probation for evading police at the time.
He was arrested June 23, 2020, after authorities searched his home, and was held on a $50,000 bail.
Police were also looking for several other individuals who vandalized and looted businesses in Riverside that same day.
The department released a video of those additional incidents:
The June 1 incident allegedly involving Castillo wasn’t the only instance of fireworks being used in a dangerous manner in weeks surrounding the incident.
On June 22, 2020, an assailant threw a firework at a homeless man, causing him to suffer burns on his back.
Warning: The following video contains violent images that some viewers may find disturbing:
Earlier yesterday morning, a homeless male was sleeping on the sidewalk in front of 67 Lenox Avenue, in the confines of the 28 pct, when he was attacked. The male pictured above threw a lit firework on him, which exploded causing burns to the victims back. pic.twitter.com/gUZhbLznGT
— Chief Rodney Harrison (@NYPDDetectives) June 23, 2020
The New York City Police Department were looking for the man in the video and were offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to his arrest, according to WCBS-TV.
Lawlessness was increasingly prevalent during the outbreak of protests following the death of George Floyd, the Minneapolis man whose neck was knelt on by a police officer for nearly nine minutes during a May 25, 2020, arrest.
Since then, violence continued to flood the streets, and members of the left and the establishment media continued to make excuses and show tacit approval for the looting and riots.
Nonetheless, Democrats across the country called for the defunding of police.
The past two years have only shown in influx in violence across the country, with crime rates spiking.
If the left continues to get what it wants, violence will remain widespread, and there will be no one left to protect the American people.
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