Second man accused of driving into group of demonstrators arrested
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MEMPHIS, TN (WREG) — A man who police said drove into a group demonstrating on Cooper Street on Friday has been taken into custody.
Beau Albauer was booked into the Shelby county Jail early Tuesday morning and charged with reckless driving and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon.
According to the police affidavit, Albauer encountered the protesters and became upset that the streets were blocked off to traffic. Sometime later, as the group was standing at the intersection of Central and Cooper, Albauer accelerated at a high rate of speed toward several individuals that were acting as traffic control.
They told police they “had to make sudden evasive maneuvers to avoid being hitas the driver deliberately drove towards them.”
Albauer continued towards the crowd but didn’t hit anyone.
The driver was stopped by Memphis Police and initially ticketed for disregarding a red light. However, after obtaining several videos from the scene, police issued an arrest warrant for Albauer on Monday.
He was arrested several hours later.
Initial reports from police indicated that several people surrounded the car and threw bottles at it. Albauer told police that he continued driving because people were running after him and throwing things.
A witness told WREG that one person threw a water bottle at the car in an attempt to get him to stop from potentially hitting people. The witness also said there were only a few people in the crosswalk and it would not have been possible to “surround” the car.
Police did not mention anything about anyone throwing a water bottle in their report.
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