SEATTLE – A guy accused of driving a car on a seattle-closed road this month and beating two protesters, killing one and seriously injuring the other, pleaded guilty Wednesday.
Dawit Kelete, 27, has stated that he is not to blame for charges of vehicular manslaughter, vehicle attack and reckless driving in the July Fourth collision that killed Summer Taylor, two, four, KING-TV reported. The other user who attacked, Diaz Love of Portland, Oregon, remains hospitalized.
Kelete has been jailed since his arrest and the sentencing has upheld the $1.2 million bail after his lawyer pleaded on behalf of Kelete, who did not speak in the proceedings.
Before the hearing, supporters of Taylor and Love gathered near the King County Courthouse, calling for justice in the case.
Kelete, in early July, four drove a Jaguar around cars parked on Interstate five towards Black Lives Matter protesters who opposed racial inequality and police violence, police said. The car hit Taylor and Love and then left the scene, the government said.
Taylor, a veterinary clinic worker, died that night. Love, 32, was first hospitalized in serious condition with damaged legs and arms and internal injuries, prosecutors said.
Kelete is black and his lawyers said the incident was a twist of fate and not an intentional act or political statement.
“There are no words that can explain or compensate for the suffering that Diaz Love, Summer Taylor’s circle of relatives, the circle of family and friends are enduring lately,” Kelete’s family circle said in a brief spread through the lawyers. “We recognize that the pain is deep, raw and unbearable.”