The Antelope Valley Times

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Woman struck by SUV at Palmdale protest against federal vaccine mandate

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[Image of protestors by BRYAN HALL]
PALMDALE – A woman who was part of a large protest against the federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate was injured Saturday afternoon when a man drove his SUV into the crowd.

The demonstration got underway at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 23, at the intersection of 10th Street West and Rancho Vista Boulevard but the alleged assault occurred about 3:30 p.m., according to Lt. T. Kim of the Palmdale Sheriff’s Station.

A 64-year-old man identified as William Aslaksen drove a black Jeep Wrangler onto the sidewalk at the crowd, injuring the woman, Kim said.

She was taken to a hospital, where her vital signs were stable.

Deputies located the Aslaksen at his Antelope Valley home, the lieutenant said.

Aslaksen was booked into the Palmdale Sheriff’s Station for suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, Kim said.

He was being held on $50,000 bail, according to sheriff’s inmate records.

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74 comments for "Woman struck by SUV at Palmdale protest against federal vaccine mandate"

    • There’s no such thing as a “political hate crime.”

      “Religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.”

      That’s quoted from the federal statute. I’m too lazy to get the state statute but it is assuredly similar. There may be some grounds for saying that certain political positions qualify as evidence of a disability, but that would make for a very difficult case.

  2. It doesn’t matter who organized this protest, it is a First Amendment right. This was a peaceful protest on a street corner (public forum) that was interrupted by a man that used violence to get his point across. I have been vaccinated and I wear my mask where required. I don’t care whether people protest over right wing issues, left wing issues, religious issues, or any other issue, as long as it is peaceful, otherwise laws are broken.

    • Jeeps are so….so American.

      The nutjobs wrapped themselves in the flags, either American or Confederate and the bible AND the Constitution.

      They repect none of them.

      It’s like Rebecca De Mornay in The Hand That Rocks The Cradle. A nnny that is going to care for your child.

      Be wary of nutjob conservatives/republicans/trumpers, etc.

      Trump refined the are of the conjob and then he conned 74 million Americans to vote fior him in 2020.

      ARE YOU ONE OF THEM?

      Be courageous and tell us. Don’t hide and pretend while repeating his best lines.

  4. William Aslaksen is going to pay a heavy price for his lack of self control. Even though I’ve received both jabs, I realize I have zero control over what other do or don’t do, so I stay out of the chaotic mess. BTW, whatever side you choose, violence against another individual is abhorrent, even if a person justifies that action.

    • Thanks Claire!
      I’m un vaxed but I already had covid and won but I have a blood clotting issue so I CAN’T take the vax so you are right…Freedom of choice = America.
      God bless you!!!

  6. I’m so sad to see such hateful words from the people who are my neighbors. We all have the right to protest and stand up for what we believe in. I am fully “vaccinated” but it was my choice. This isn’t even a true vaccine but I made the choice in hopes to better my defenses against COVID. These people protesting state they are protesting “The Right to Choose”. They are not protesting the vaccine but yet the Government over-reach. Many of the protesters that I spoke to are already fully vaccinated but support the right to choose. We shouldn’t wish hate and pain on our fellow humans. We have lost our compassion and humanity and its so sad. I didn’t see these hate filled messages at the violent protests across the country late summer. Now people protest peacefully and you wish them harm? Sad where our society has gone.

    • So if they are fully vaccinated, yet protest the vaccine, does that make them hypocrites or what?????

      • Matt: Read JZ’s comment again. “They are not protesting the vaccine but yet the Government over-reach. Many of the protestors that I spoke to are already vaccinated but support the right to choose.” You should hope that you’re always in agreement with future government mandates because your right to choose may be taken away…and those mandates won’t be limited to just Covid.

        • Probably won’t be limited to covid. I would guess the already existing mandates regarding all the other vaccines will stay in place. It is also possible that this sets the stage for the controversy over the measles vaccine to be ended with mandates, which may or may not be a good thing.

          • Think outside the realm of vaccines. I don’t want the government telling me what I can or cannot do for myself or my family about ANY medical issue. Treatment options (choices) should always be made by the patient (or guardian) after consultation with a trusted doctor. It’s a slippery slope that could go from mandating vaccines to any other medical procedures. Right now we can medically advocate for ourselves or loved ones. That could all be taken away with government involvement. And would government stop there or also mandate what we can and cannot do with our money, property, time, etc? Something to contemplate.

          • So, Your 2 cents.

            If you don’t want to take a vaccine, you give up any expection to be allowed to work, travel to Canada, attend public events that require a certificate, etc.

            So, don’t you dare complain about all that then.

            Cops don’t want to get a little shot in the arm, look elsewhere for a job. You aren’t entitled to it.

          • @a nickle for inflation

            I can’t speak for William, but if he is like me he didn’t miss your point, he ignored it. No offense.

            It is just impossible for me to take a “today vaccine, tomorrow the world” slippery slope argument seriously on the same day that I am dealing with a major political figure openly calling for the removal of the right to vote any way other than how he wants who is somehow being backed by tens of millions of befuddled and self destructive USians. I mean, I get your concern, and at many points in history I might even share your need to remind people about slippery slopes…it’s just that IMO now is very very much not the time.

          • What was your point 2 cent piece? Care to unmuddle it for me?

            Tim Scott didn’t summarize it.

            Did you get my reply?

    • JZ…Yes, they are protesting the vaccine MANDATE, not the vaccine. I have friends who have chosen not to get the shots and friends that have received them; either way, those that choose not to will either be suspended from jobs, lose their jobs, or have their health insurance go up. Wear your masks where required, whether you’re vaccinated or not. Violence is never a solution; there is too much violence in this nation coming from all sides. Using a car as a weapon is inexcusable.

      • If using a bar as a weapon is inexcusable, how come republican legislatures and governors across the nation have excused it?

        • Using a car as a weapon is inexcusable, I don’t care who excuses it. My comment is referring to this article, not anything else that goes off onto another path.

    • If you “didn’t see these hate filled messages at the violent protests across the country last summer” you flat out were not paying attention.

      You can go back and look. If nothing else the then president of the United States left his hate spew on the record.

    • What does not a true vaccine mean? BTW, nobody is saying they have to get it. They can go work some where else. They can travel another way. They have all of their freedoms. Freedom of choice does not mean freedoms from the consequences of their choices. Don’t want the vaccine, don’t get it, but don’t get mad that people won’t want you around them. Simple.

        • Did you know that gonorrhea is almost never fatal? Doesn’t mean I want to go try to catch it. But you go ahead on.

        • In about 0.5 percent of cases, polio moves from the gut to affect the central nervous system, and there is muscle weakness resulting in paralysis. In those with muscle weakness, about 2 to 5 percent of children and 15 to 30 percent of adults die. Up to 70 percent of those infected have no symptoms. Another 25 percent of people have minor symptoms such as fever and a sore throat, and up to 5 percent have headache, neck stiffness, and pains in the arms and legs. Infected people are usually back to normal within one or two weeks.

          So let me help you with the math. In polio – – only 0.15% of adults (the 30% of severe symptomatic with paralysis of the 0.5% of the total infectious cases) die. Yet, no one was screaming about taking polio vaccine.

    • It’s very sad that violence threatens anyone who protests. We have our Constitutional Rights to address our ”grievances”. I don’t always agree with some protests but that is their ”RIGHT” to do so peacefully. We must protect our Rights.. Without the 2nd Amendment we won’t have the 1st Amendment, is my belief.

      This driver ran into a woman with his vehicle because he didn’t agree, so now he’ll face the consequences of his actions. The ”Hatred” in our Country must Stop.. We are all American’s, so try to listen to each other & ”think for yourself”.. Violence against our fellow American’s is NOT the answer. Listen, listen, listen!! There’s always 2 sides to every story.. This Protest was not against Vaccines, it’s about the MANDATE!

    • The protest attendance at the time that I went by, which was while the LASD & EMS were there handling the incident, appeared to be somewhere around 50 people. This is a gross and fast estimate from a brief drive through… of the intersection, not the crowd… I don’t drive a Jeep.

  8. It’s not a protest until roads are blocked and at least one business is looted.

    Was William Aslaksen wearing a mask?

  9. I’ve noticed that most of the people who are against vaccines were also against wearing masks when it was recommended and protesting on the same corner (Rancho Vista and 10th).

    There’s this whole local group of bored, stupid women who barely graduated high school (if they did?) and who are involved in MLM/pyramid schemes and essential oils crap that are behind these protests.

    Most of them would be homeless or living with their elderly parents if they hadn’t have found stupid gullible husbands with good jobs to leach off of.

    • Lol, nothing like broad strokes of hate on a Monday afternoon. Who pissed in your cheerios today?

    • Uhhh,
      Just read the last paragraph folks,
      This person has never married or had kids.
      I’ll put anything on it.

      • Wrong you are! Proud mother of two, smart, vaccinated 20-somethings here!…So, did my comment hit a little too close to home for you, Sonya?

        Keep selling your essential oils, taking your phony “happy wife” Insta pics and reading your Anti-vaxx blogs. That 8 year mark will be here before you know it and you’ll be entitled to half of everything he’s earned.

  10. No mention of this guy initially getting out of his vehicle to attack a gay man who was protesting vaccine mandates…

    So much for liberal inclusiveness and acceptance of our diverse population.

    You know, the oh so tolerant left.

    • What does the left have to do with it? This piece is straight off the police press release, just like the reporting on every other news source.

      If that’s what initially happened (and I am not saying that it isn’t) and some enterprising reporter finds some corroboration of it I am sure it will turn up. I saw it on facebook and it seems plausible enough, but that doesn’t make it a fact.

      • I was there. He stopped his Jeep, got out and started kicking and trying to punch Mario. When protesters tried to help Mario, this guy went crazy, cussing them out then he tripped while backing up onto the street. He got back up, mad as hell and tore off in his Jeep. He then made a U-Turn on Rancho Vista and gunned it back at the protest. From then, he jumped over the median as people fled. He hit the one woman as she was leaping away. He was intentionally aiming at these people. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! From there, tore off into the mall parking lot getting away but his Jeep was really messed up and driving erratically. Jumping the medians must have damaged much of the under carriage. One of the craziest things I’ve ever seen!

        • What this guy did is inexcusable. Nobody should try to hurt anyone else for exercising their right to protest, however, this points to something much deeper! And that is people, by and large are getting sick and tired of QAnon and their antics. The QAnoners were against masks, which prolonged the pandemic. They called Covid a “plandemic” and built an online empire of lies to support it. They intentionally spread falsehoods and conspiracy theories about people and labeled them “pedos”. They tried to hold an insurrection to overturn legal and bonafide election results. They demanded audits which cost millions and got the same results. They are against the government stepping in to help people, financially. And now they are against vaccines because…well…because they have to be “against” something! At this point, it’s just willful ignorance and wanting to intentionally throw cogs in the machine whenever they can. They live in this false reality where they think they are “the majority” because they don’t see anyone flying Biden/Harris flags or with Biden/Harris stickers plastered all over their vehicles. They hubristically think they speak for everyone when the reality is quite the opposite.

          And, now, after dragging things along and kicking and screaming and making life suck for everyday, normal people…you’re seeing normal people (the Silent Majority) get angrier and this is the result.

      • It’s projection. They identified the protestors as being aligned with their own right-wing beliefs and assumed the guy must have been left-wing.

        In the minds of some people around here, it seems there can be no other motive than partisan politics.

        • Well, the protest was organized by a Trumpist that supports and organizes protests about every dingbat right wing “cause” that comes along, so it is pretty easy for the right wingers to identify with the protesters.

  12. It’s unfortunate this incident occurred. Which ever side of the fence you’re on – I respect ✊ it. We all have our own beliefs.
    Regardless, I don’t wish anyone sickness or death. And I cannot condone the striking of a fellow human with an automobile by another fellow human. ✌

    • Well, one side of the fence where you are respecting people they favor legalizing striking protestors with cars. Numerous GOP controlled states passed such legislation last year. It would not surprise me at all if the woman that was hit by a car supports the party that wants to legalize hitting her with a car. I respect the right to have an opinion, but that opinion is still daft.

      • This law was made for people in their vehicles that are surrounded by violent leftist protesters trying to cause harm to them or their vehicles. Not peaceful right wing protesters on the sidewalk.
        Like always, Nice try nerd.

        • LOL…maybe in basic clown land they make laws that only apply to some people, like “only republicans get to run people over.” I’m sure that if asked the republicans would say they intended to make laws exactly like that, and if only their insurrection had been successful at installing Trump despite the election maybe they even could make the kind of laws you want…but they missed…that time.

          So take your unconstitutional “laws for thee that aren’t for me” totalitarianism back to basic clown land. Your bozo got beaten here.

    • Sorry, but I don’t respect people who are acting childish about this. We all had polio/MMR/Hepatitis vaccines when we could get them.

      If you’re young enough, you’ve probably had an HPV vaccine too.

      Vaccines save lives. Vaccines are the key to getting people back to work and getting the economy rolling forward again.

      People who stand in the way of vaccines are standing in the way of getting the economy up and running and getting back to normal. These are the same knuckledraggers who whined and protested about us wearing masks too. These are the freaks flying Trump flags on their vehicles and getting in people’s faces.

      No sympathy here.

  13. Everyone hoping these people get sick because they don’t have a vaccine, I’m sorry even if you got the vaccine you can still get sick too. Stop acting like this vaccine gives full immunity you stupid animals. Stop thinking about yourselves for once and what YOU want, who the fuck are you at the end of the day? A sheep.

    • If I get covid again I am confident that it will not do me any significant harm, since I am vaccinated and the vaccine has proven to be very effective at limiting symptoms and effects to the point of being like a cold at worst. So if I do get it again I plan to go participate in as many anti-vax gatherings as I can find. Only place I will go without the courtesy of wearing a mask.

      • And you or someone like you will be the next to try to kill someone you disagree with
        Whether it’s running them down on the sidewalk or with a sickness you carry
        By your hateful comments it would be logical to assume it is a mental illness
        You are part of the ignorant masses or as Stalin called them convenient masses which allowed communism to take control over Russia
        the protesters were fighting for Your freedom which allows you to roam the world spewing you hateful words
        Please think about what you have said and treat people the way you want to be treated
        Put your feet in the other person’s shoes

          • Kneel,

            And stay down there,
            We will let you know when and what to do,

            but for now, stay down there

          • LOL…yeah, I have been fighting my whole life, and I’ve taken some losses…if you think “made to take a life saving vaccine in order to have a particular job” is oppression you need to broaden your horizons little snowflake.

          • What’s so interesting is the unwitting ignorance of Trumpers like Beecee.

            They don’t want to “take orders” from the government on a health issue.

            They willfully submit to Trump’s dictates.

            That’s the secret to becoming an authoritarian despot. You fool the folks into thinking that’s what they want.

            How can anyone explain away Trump’s hold on the Republcan Party? They fear Trump’s indoctrinated base. Some like Mike Garcia are indoctinated themselves and others know it’s all lies but pretend otherwise to keep their jobs in government.

            Pretty sick, eh?

      • Unless the cause of your apparent mental instability, it doesn’t seem as though Covid affected you gravely the first time.

  14. Well, they’re really taking “Give me liberty or give me death!” to a whole new level.

    I bet in a month all those people at that rally will probably get COVID so bad they’re gonna be like, “I should’ve gotten the vaccine….”

    Jerks.

  15. People really wasting their weekend protesting this mandate.. y’all ain’t got nothing better to do but stand and waste your time because nothing is changing for you walking aids sacks… lose your job or get the shot and your dirty kids that you’re raising to be tards just like you will soon have to get the shot too or you can sit home and homeschool them.. ..

    • @ohwell, well we can certainly tell you were not educated at home or in school. Also it doesn’t sound like anyone ever loved you or said anything nice. Sorry for that man !