CHP cruiser drives through Trump crowd, flinging man off car and onto road

As a crowd gathered Monday outside McClellan Airport in Sacramento following the arrival of President Trump, one man climbed atop a California Highway Patrol vehicle, which drove forward, throwing the man over the top of the cruiser and onto the pavement.

Video from NBC News and bystanders show a man wearing a red hat climbing onto the hood of the moving CHP vehicle and scaling the windshield.

In the video, demonstrators flank the car as the man is flung off. The vehicle flips the man over his side before he lands on his stomach on the pavement. At least one other person was knocked down by the car.

Other video shows a person being loaded into an ambulance as the crowd cheers. One of the men in the gathering can be seen making obscene gestures toward several CHP officers, who walked behind the injured person, who was lying on a stretcher.

According to the CHP, two officers were conducting traffic control near Watt Avenue and Airbase Drive and were trying to leave the area when the incident occurred.

“As the lead vehicle began to pull away, one of the protesters climbed up the hood of the patrol vehicle. Fearing for his safety, the officer began to accelerate away, and the protester fell off the vehicle,” public information officer A.J. McTaggart said Tuesday. “Medical aid was provided, and the party was transported to Mercy San Juan [Medical Center] with minor injuries.”

The North Area CHP is currently investigating the incident.

Roughly three blocks away, another incident involving a vehicle and protesters took place earlier in the day. Video from the scene showed a green Volvo driving into a group of demonstrators on the side of the road in McClellan Park, just outside Sacramento. It was not immediately clear whether CHP officers at that location were connected to the later event.

Trump arrived in California on Monday for a briefing on the massive wildfires that have ravaged the state for days. More than 3.3 million acres have burned in the firestorm, and more than 4,100 structures have been destroyed.

Before Trump’s arrival, protesters and supporters gathered outside the airfield, holding signs that bore messages supporting and denouncing the president.