Man charged with assault at Tesla dealership after driving car at protesters
Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said deputies went to a planned protest at a West Palm Beach dealership on Saturday, where suspect Andrew Dutil drove onto the curb and slowly toward the protesters. There were no injuries.
"The protestors had to move out of the way in order to avoid being struck by the vehicle," the sheriff's office said in a statement.
Court records show Dutil, who is being held in Palm Beach County Jail, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill. It is not clear if he has retained a lawyer or when he is due to appear in court.
The Palm Beach Post reported that Dutil was driving a black Nissan SUV and that the crowd numbered more than 100.
"He drove into a crowd of senior citizens. Everybody was able to move out, but two older women were really almost clipped. We immediately called the cops," Mark Offerman, from the Democratic Progressive Caucus Palm Beach County, which organized the protest, told the newspaper.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The protest was one of several across the country in recent weeks to show opposition to Tesla founder Elon Musk's politics and actions at the Department of Government Efficiency. Since January, DOGE has slashed government costs and fired thousands of federal workers.
While some Republicans have cheered on his extreme methods, politicians and supporters of both parties have warned of the consequences of remaking the state in such a rapid, hardline way.
The Democratic Progressive Caucus Palm Beach County is planning to protest at the same West Palm Beach dealership every Saturday for the foreseeable future.
"Elon Musk is destroying our democracy, and he's using the fortune he built at Tesla to do it," the organizers wrote in a message advertising the demonstrations on an activist website.
It continued: "We are taking action at Tesla to stop Musk's illegal coup AND send a vital message to the American People: we will not surrender democracy to the Trump-Vance-Musk regime to benefit Russian President Vladimir Putin or any dictator or oligarch."
While many protests are peaceful, there have been at least 80 reported cases of vandalism and damage effecting Tesla vehicles and charging stations, including cars being and charging stations damaged. At least 10 dealerships have been affected.
The FBI said Friday that protesters were targeting Tesla vehicles and dealerships across the country "with arson, gunfire, and vandalism." But law enforcement officials and domestic terrorism said there was no evidence of coordination of the attacks.
The protests are having real-world consequences for Tesla. The company's stock price closed at $248.71 on Friday, having reached a 52-week high of $488.54 in December, although the price is higher than it was for much of 2024.
Musk spoke at a Tesla all-hands meeting last week and told his employees there are better days ahead. "Hang on to your stock," he urged his staff.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
13 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Trump news at a glance: DC crackdown expands with national guard to be deployed by three more states
After deploying the national guard to the streets of Washington DC, Donald Trump's federal crackdown is moving into a new phase. Three more states – West Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio – have said they will deploy hundreds of national guard troops to DC in the coming days. But crime prevention workers say the move will do little to prevent crime, and address systemic cycles of violence and property crime. Anticipating a further rollout of the controversial policy, Democratic cities are preparing for the worst with mayors from Seattle to Baltimore vowing to protect their cities legally and otherwise. Here are the key stories at a glance. Three states have moved to send hundreds of members of their national guard to the nation's capital as part of the Trump administration's effort to overhaul policing in Washington DC through a federal crackdown. West Virginia said it was deploying 300 to 400 guard troops while South Carolina pledged 200 and Ohio said it would send 150 in the coming days. Read the full story In a combative series of interviews on Sunday, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said that 'both sides are going to have to make concessions' for there to be a peaceful resolution to the war that erupted when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. 'You can't have a peace agreement unless both sides make concessions – that's a fact,' the Trump administration's top diplomat told ABC on Sunday. 'That's true in virtually any negotiation. If not, it's just called surrender. And neither side is going to surrender. So both sides are going to have to make concessions.' Read the full story A Texas judge has expanded a restraining order against former congressman Beto O'Rourke and his political organization over its fundraising for Democratic state lawmakers who left Texas to prevent a legislative session on congressional redistricting. Read the full story When Donald Trump's Department of Justice requested the release of grand jury transcripts in criminal proceedings against sex-traffickers Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, the move did little to quiet an ever-growing chorus of critics frustrated by the US president's backtracking over disclosing investigative files. Read the full story Trump hiked tariffs on US imports. Now he's looking at exports – sparking fears of a 'dangerous precedent', writes Lauren Arantani in this analysis. US state department stops issuing visas for Gaza's children to get medical care after far-right campaign. Catching up? Here's what happened Saturday 16 August.
Reuters
13 minutes ago
- Reuters
Gold rebounds from two-week low; Trump-Zelenskiy meeting in focus
Aug 18 (Reuters) - Gold rose after hitting a two-week low, supported by lower U.S. Treasury yields as investors awaited U.S. President Donald Trump's meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European leaders to discuss a peace deal with Russia. Spot gold was up 0.3% at $3,345.64 per ounce, as of 0156 GMT on Monday, after hitting its lowest level since August 1. U.S. gold futures for December delivery rose 0.3% to $3,391.80. "Gold was on the back foot to start the day, but ... was able to reverse course with buyers stepping up to around the $3,330 level as a value play. U.S. treasury yields gave up some of Friday's gains which also helped to make life easier for the gold price," said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade. European leaders are set to join Zelenskiy for discussions with Trump. Russia would relinquish tiny pockets of occupied Ukraine and Kyiv would cede swathes of its eastern land which Moscow has been unable to capture, under peace proposals discussed by Russia's Vladimir Putin and Trump at their Alaska summit, sources briefed on Moscow's thinking said. "We are seeing limited moves in either direction ahead of what could be some lively meetings in the White House this week with Zelenskiy back in town," Waterer said. Meanwhile, benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields eased from more than two-week high level. Investors are also looking ahead to the Federal Reserve's annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Economists polled by Reuters largely expect the Fed to announce a rate cut in September, its first this year, with a possible second cut by the year-end amid mounting U.S. economy woes. Non-yielding bullion, considered a safe-haven assets during periods of uncertainity, tends to perform well in low-interest-rate environment. Elsewhere, spot silver rose 0.3% to $38.08 per ounce, platinum gained 0.8% to $1,346.61 and palladium was up 1.3% to $1,126.85.
Daily Mail
13 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
America's energy bill crisis spirals out of control as red state sees $300 a month hikes
Atlanta residents are facing steep energy bill hikes as summer heat scorches the state. Customers of Georgia Power saw their monthly bills rise as much as $300 last month. Local residents Brenda Lankfert and Michael Reff both received bills of almost $800 in July, WSB-TV reported. Reff claims the bill was a 117 percent increase from the month before. 'We've had hot days, but that's a huge leap,' he told the publication. Lankfert said her $780 bill was attributed to just two air conditioning units. 'I don't run my units cold. I keep my house about 78 degrees year-round,' she said. 'This July was one of Georgia's hottest in nearly a decade, with temperatures averaging 2–5 degrees above normal. When temperatures rise, so does energy use,' Georgia Power said in a statement. 'Even with seasonal spikes… Our rates have averaged 15 percent below the national average since 1990.' As temperatures continue to rise due to climate change, Georgia residents have been urged to look into ways to cut back their energy use to bring their bills down. Electricity use in the peak hours between 2pm and 7pm will cost more than in non-peak hours. It come as New Jersey residents have also complained of huge spikes in their energy costs. The New Jersey's Board of Public Utilities (BPU) approved a 17 to 20 percent hike in June for the majority of households in The Garden State. Republicans in the state have claimed it is tied directly to Democratic Governor Phil Murphy's move to shut down the state's nuclear and coal plants in 2017. Murphy touted offshore turbines as the way forward, but none of them have yet to be completed due to issues around costs. Electric bills in the state now rank as the 12th highest in the nation, with prices 15 percent higher than the national average, analysis from The Wall Street Journal found. The state is becoming increasingly dependent on out-of-state generation to meet the electricity demand, according to the Journal. Republicans in New Jersey have claimed the bill hike is due to Democratic Governor Phil Murphy's move to shut down the state's nuclear and coal plants in 2017 One resident who spoke with Fox News said her monthly energy bill had gone up by $200. 'This is killing us, and every time you turn around it's something more. You only get little pleasures in life that you enjoy, and my air conditioner is one of them,' she said. Meanwhile residents in Michigan have been forced to resort to old-fashioned techniques to control their energy bills after price hikes this summer. Some residents reported cutting wood for fires rather than using electric heating earlier this year. Consumers Energy, the second largest power provider in the state, filed an intention to raise rates in March, leaving residents bracing for even higher bills. The filing requested an annual rate hike of a whopping $436 million. The July inflation report found that energy prices across the US rose 0.9 percent in the past month. Food prices were also among the hardest hit last month, rising another 0.3 percent, matching May's grocery increase.
