Coast Guard personnel stand watch behind a barrier at Coast Guard Base Alameda on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. The barrier was erected earlier in the day after law enforcement officers fired on a vehicle as it backed towards them. (Noah Berger/AP)
SAN FRANCISCO (Tribune News Service) — A U-Haul truck driver was charged Tuesday for allegedly trying to drive into a group of United States Coast Guard officers near Oakland last month during a protest against immigration enforcement, officials said.
The 26-year-old driver is facing one count of assault against federal officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The alleged assault happened on Oct. 23 just before 10 p.m. on Coast Guard Island in Alameda, according to a complaint filed Thursday by FBI Special Agent Mikael Bergh. The Coast Guard officers were stationed near the bridge leading into the island as a few dozen people protested recent threats of an immigration enforcement raid in San Francisco, Bergh said.
Prosecutors allege that the U-Haul driver stopped and started several times and eventually reversed the truck toward a group of officers while accelerating “rapidly.” Officers shouted at the driver to stop, but the driver allegedly continued to accelerate toward the group, Bergh said.
According to the complaint, the officers “feared for their lives” and some even “feared the possibility that the truck was a vehicle borne Improvised Explosive Device,” prompting officers to shoot at the truck.
After the gunshots, the driver stopped briefly and drove east on Dennison Street in Oakland, the complaint says, where they got into another person’s car. Bergh said the driver was taken by a “third party” to Highland Hospital in Oakland for a gunshot wound between the shoulder blades.
The driver’s injuries were non-life-threatening, the DOJ said in its release.
If convicted, the driver could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the DOJ said. The driver is set to appear in court on Nov. 10.
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