A driver of a small U-Haul truck was shot and injured by law enforcement after attempting to ram the vehicle into a U.S. Coast Guard base in the San Francisco Bay Area, federal authorities announced Friday.
"The truck driver was wounded in the stomach and is being held for mental health evaluation," the DHS said.
Officials have described what happened as an attempt to use the vehicle as a weapon against the base.
Law enforcement ordered the driver to stop multiple times, DHS said. The driver ignored the commands and "suddenly accelerated backwards at a high rate of speed directly toward them," the department wrote.
"When the vehicle's actions posed a direct threat to the safety of Coast Guard and security personnel, law enforcement officers discharged several rounds of defensive live fire," it said.
The driver is anticipated to recover. The department did not confirm whether the injury resulted from gunfire.
A civilian nearby, who was struck by debris, received medical treatment at a hospital and was discharged. No Coast Guard members were injured.
Video footage from the scene shows what appeared to be a U-Haul truck attempting to reverse into the base.
"U-Haul is assisting law enforcement to meet any investigative needs they have," company spokesperson Jeff Lockridge said.
The attempted ramming happened hours after demonstrators gathered at the island facility Thursday, many holding signs reading "Protect our neighbors" and "No ICE or troops in the Bay," referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and National Guard forces.
FBI crisis management, evidence collection, and explosive ordnance disposal teams responded to the area of the shooting.
"At this time, the incident appears to be isolated, and there is no known current threat to the public," said FBI spokesperson Cameron Polan in San Francisco.
Trump’s San Francisco Reversal
The protest followed President Donald Trump's decision earlier Thursday to cancel a planned deployment of federal agents to San Francisco intended to combat crime. Mayor Daniel Lurie and Gov. Gavin Newsom said the surge was unwarranted due to decreasing crime rates.U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel had begun arriving at the Coast Guard base on Thursday morning for the potential expanded immigration operations, drawing several hundred demonstrators.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement notified Alameda County Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez that operations were canceled throughout the Bay Area, a nine-county region with approximately 8 million residents, according to Sgt. Roberto Morales, a sheriff's department spokesman.
This decision contrasted with Trump's actions to deploy military forces to other Democratic-controlled cities despite strong opposition from local elected officials.
Trump reversed course after consulting with the mayor and prominent business figures who indicated they are actively addressing the city's challenges.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Friday during a Minneapolis news conference that she discussed the incident with Trump and indicated the president might reconsider withholding federal enforcement operations in the Bay Area if more violence occurs.
The administration would be compelled to intervene if local officials "don't figure out how to protect our law enforcement officers and protect our Coast Guard members," according to Noem.
National Guard deployments in Washington faced legal challenges Friday in two courtrooms—one in the District of Columbia and another in West Virginia—while a Portland, Oregon, judge weighed whether to permit the deployment of troops there. Deployments continue to be prohibited in the Chicago region.