How Not to Cosplay

[Gravekeeper]

2. the guy originally started rolling through the crowd- he didn't gun the engine until AFTER the crowd were beating on the car. From what I read, the crowd surrounded him, he didn't drive into the crowd.

We've got video from multiple angles in the first two posts of this thread. That was not the case.

also, while I can accept he panicked, it still doesn't exactly excuse it- though under the conditions, I think the police were right not to charge him. He probably SHOULD be required to pay any hospital bills caused though.

Frankly, he's seriously lucky he only caused one major injury and didn't kill anyone ( He crushed a woman's arm. ) Especially given he gunned it through a crowd that included several children. He himself was on his way to Comicon and his kids were dressed up in costume. So its not like he didn't know wtf was going on with all these people around.

Also its not that the police decided not to charge him, they're reviewing the evidence to decide what to charges are relevant and don't expect to make a decision until Monday. It is amazingly illegal to forcibly try and move people with your vehicle as this man did.

Additionally, according to the SDPD, this crowd was not part of the Zombiewalk, they were just general Comicon congestion with a few zombies mixed in. The Zombiewalk was about 4-6 blocks ahead of this point and the SDPD had officers ahead of it making sure traffic was being handled.

This intersection has no lights, only stop signs. The pedestrians have the right of way, even if they're being slow. You cannot use your vehicle to move a crowd. It is legally considered a deadly weapon. In this situation, he was legally required to wait. End of story. He certainly had no right to just start driving into the crowd then claim he panicked when the crowd reacted predictably to having a car drive into them.

[Jetfire]

Additionally, according to the SDPD, this crowd was not part of the Zombiewalk, they were just general Comicon congestion with a few zombies mixed in. The Zombiewalk was about 4-6 blocks ahead of this point and the SDPD had officers ahead of it making sure traffic was being handled.

This intersection has no lights, only stop signs. The pedestrians have the right of way, even if they're being slow. You cannot use your vehicle to move a crowd. It is legally considered a deadly weapon. In this situation, he was legally required to wait. End of story. He certainly had no right to just start driving into the crowd then claim he panicked when the crowd reacted predictably to having a car drive into them.

That explains the video linked here. I was looking at it and thinking "there didn't seem to be that many zombies in there." acting up or otherwise.

Of course another angle does show someone hopping up on the guy's hood, and that guy is probably due charges as well, but that still doesn't excuse the driver for gunning through a crosswalk.

[gremcint]

people walking calmly by, guy waiting, guy starts to drive into people with 0 provocation. Yeah it is not the cosplayer's fault all. Cosplay is not consent to be roadkill.

[Greenday]

Please. He barely edged into the group. The videos show someone jumping on his car. People were slapping the car. That's ground to feel fear for yourself and your family.

[siead_lietrathua]

Please. He barely edged into the group.

balls. i bet if you were one of the pedestrians being 'edged' into, you'd be just as pissed as the rest of them for having a car's horn in your ear and a bumper on your shins.
the guy may have felt fear from getting his ass rightly yelled at, and the oh-so-scary guy sitting on his hood with his back turned must have been truly terrifying. really. but any fear he felt he brought on his damn self by being a douche in the first place. if he had waited, or hell if he had just honked WITHOUT rolling up into people, none of this would have happened.

[Gravekeeper]

Please. He barely edged into the group. The videos show someone jumping on his car. People were slapping the car. That's ground to feel fear for yourself and your family.

A) Bullshit.

B) You can NOT do that. Period. The pedestrians legally have the right of way and you legally must stop. You cannot use your vehicle, a deadly weapon, to forcibly move them out of your way. It is a failure to yield and a failure to exercise due care. Never mind the whole assault with a deadly weapon aspect and the fact he's riding into a crowd that includes children.

You don't get to break the law then say you got scared so you had to run people over. He breaks four traffic laws under California law the moment he begins to move forward. Thats before you even get to the whole assault, reckless endangerment, etc.

Allow me to quote Lt Marshall White from the SDPD whose in charge of managing special events like this:

White emphasized that “the pedestrians that were crossing the street legally have the right of way. For vehicle code and common sense, you cannot use a car to move people out of the way. Never ever can you use a deadly weapon to make a path across a crowd of people. When you are in a busy congested area, you must wait. I do not want to condone people’s impatience in justifying a car to go through a crowd of people.”

[radiocerk]

I've had a car "edge" into me in a crosswalk. My first reaction was to bring my fist down on the center of the hood in an attempt to bring the pedestrian they are trying to kill to their attention. If a car has it's windows up, which almost goes without saying in San Diego in July, yelling will not get the attention of a driver easily. You try to run me over, I will hit your car with any hand prop I have.

[Canarr]

Has anyone seen any update to this? Was the driver charged with anything?

[Gravekeeper]

I've been keeping an eye out for an update but the SDPD is still staying silent on the subject.

[Greenday]

I think everyone wants to sweep it under the rug. Bad publicity for everyone.

[Gravekeeper]

I think everyone wants to sweep it under the rug. Bad publicity for everyone.

Bad publicity for who exactly? Deaf people? Random pedestrian traffic? The SDPD says the investigation is still ongoing. Not that they dropped it. The driver gave an interview ( To a news site for deaf people. That he works for. ) where he says he honked and moved the car into the crowd. Then panicked when the crowd reacted.

Also, the driver was a Comicon volunteer so he has no excuse for not knowing what was going on. Plus it turns out the occupants of the car were him, his girlfriend, his girlfriend's sister and his girlfriend's sister's son. So there was only one kid in the car, and it was not his. Which is a different story than the original I had my children in the car so I had to gun it because they were scared.

The deaf angle is also irrelevant because the driver says he rolled his window down and they asked someone how long the crowd would take to move. So he can either speak and understand despite being deaf, or not everyone in the vehicle was deaf as originally claimed. Which may be the case now that its been revealed that no one in the car was directly related to him.

He says that he panicked though and didn't even realize he had run a woman over. The problem is his version of events doesn't match the videos. The things he claims made him panic ( Someone hitting the windshield and trying to open a door ) didn't occur until after he had driven into the crowd and gunned it. The person who cracks his windshield does so because he's being hurdled forward on the hood of a speeding car. Same with the person that tries to open the door. These occurred after he hits the gas.

No matter what way you slice it, he causes the entire situation and legally also committed the first crime.

[Rubyred]

I haven't posted anything in a really long time but I had to dig out my password to respond to this.

I live in San Diego and several friends of mine did the Zombie Walk and I attended Comic Con the day before. Ive heard a few firsthand accounts of what happened.

First of all this guy was a moron for even attempting to navigate a car downtown during that weekend at all. Take the train.

Second, there were signs for the walk EVERYWHERE. He would have to be a special kind of stupid to not know what was going on.

Third, previous posters are correct when they say that the man diving the car was simply impatient with the crowds and expected everyone to move for him. No one pounded on the car until he started edging into them. He then claimed that he was afraid AFTER people chased him down and stopped him.

A part of me wants to place the blame on the event staff and the police though for not closing those roads around the convention center/petco park/ gaslamp. There were way way too many people there for anyone to operate a motor vehicle safely.