1 arrested after police say he drove car into Florida Tesla protest crowd. What we know
A Trump supporter was arrested on Saturday after an SUV drove into a crowd protesting megabillionaire Elon Tusk, his role in President Donald Trump's administration and their moves to drastically slash the federal government. No one was injured.
Andrew Tutil, 44, of West Palm Beach, was arrested and charged with first-degree felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent, according to Palm Beach County records.
Here's what we know:
Tutil, 44. is a retired U.S. Army captain and civil engineer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Palm Beach Gardens, according to a bio page at TrumpettesUSA.com.
A group of around 150 protestors were lined up outside the West Palm Beach Tesla dealership around 1 p.m. Saturday when a black Nissan Pathfinder SUV drove slowly into the crowd.
"He drove into a crowd of senior citizens," said Mark Offerman of the Democratic Progressive Caucus Palm Beach County about the driver. "Everybody was able to move out, but two older women were really almost clipped. We immediately called the cops."
Tutil parked on the sidewalk where protestors were standing and jumped out, saying his brakes and electronics had gone out, and he claimed to be a West Palm Beach Tesla employee, Offerman said.
Police questioned Tutil and witnesses, viewed photo and video evidence, and arrested him.
The protest was one of many held nationwide in the last few weeks to raise voices against Musk, his unelected insertion into the federal government and his efforts to slash government programs and fire tens of thousands of federal employees in what he calls an effort to reduce waste and inefficiency. Some protests are part of an organized movement called "Tesla Takedown."
In recent weeks there have been Florida protests in Gainesville, Sarasota, Jacksonville, and Merrit Island.
The protests aren't against electric vehicles. "We are anti-Elon Musk," actor and filmmaker Alex Winter told InsideEVs in February as the protests were picking up speed globally. "The mission is to decouple Musk from Tesla, because he is a toxic figurehead for that company."
Much of Musk's massive wealth is based on his stake in Tesla, Winter said. Americans angry at the Trump administration's sweeping changes who see no other way to make their voices heard have made Teslas and Tesla Cybertrucks a visible symbol to protest.
"I think it's the hypocrisy of it," Winter said. "This idea that these guys, who have built their wealth off of government subsidies and government handouts, are accusing hard-working, low-income people of being parasites. It makes people just staggeringly angry."
Saturday's protest in West Palm Beach, organized by the Democratic Progressive Caucus, was one of six planned for every Saturday through April 26.
"Mar-a-Lago is here. Trump is here. This is his home," said Offerman. "We have big problems with the way that our government functions, and find it very anti-American. So we want to wake people up, and we're taking on this national call."
While the vast majority of the Tesla protests have been peaceful, there has also been a rise in people vandalizing Teslas and Cybertrucks, painting offensive messages or causing damage.
In Fort Lauderdale, 34 new Cybertrucks in a parking lot were damaged and tagged with the message "(expletive) Elon, WPLG reported. More Cybertrucks were vandalized at a Colorado dealership, and last week Las Vegas police said Molotov cocktails and a gun were used to destroy Tesla cars during a 'targeted attack' at a Tesla Collision Center.
Since Musk has become the face of the Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) onslaught on federal budgets and workforce — seemingly in arbitrary and counterproductive ways — shares in Tesla stock have plummeted more than 50% since its 52-week high in late December.
It isn't helping that Tesla's much-hyped Cyerbtrucks continue to underperform with regular revelations of problems in construction and performance. Last week the company recalled 46,000 Cybertrucks to fix an exterior panel that can come loose while driving, the eighth recall for the model since January 2024.
In response, Trump staged a photo opp earlier this month to defend Musk, a staunch ally who contributed more than a quarter-million dollars to campaign committees supporting his re-election. The two men appeared with several Tesla models at the White House as Trump praised the cars, announced he was buying one, and said that anyone committing violence to Tesla owners and dealerships should be labeled as "domestic terrorists."
"People that get caught sabotaging Teslas will stand a very good chance of going to jail for up to twenty years, and that includes the funders," Trump said Thursday in a post to his social media site. "WE ARE LOOKING FOR YOU!!!"
Within days, former Florida Attorney General and current U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi made the terrorism charge official and said that three people arrested for violent destruction of Tesla properties would be charged with the "full force of the law."
'Let this be a warning: if you join this wave of domestic terrorism against Tesla properties, the Department of Justice will put you behind bars,' she said last week in a release.
Neither Trump nor Bondi have addressed violence toward Tesla protestors.
Jasmine Fernández, Antonio Fins, Palm Beach Post contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Tesla protest arrested in Florida accuses man of driving into crowd
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