A man was arrested and charged with assault, accused of driving his car toward a crowd of people protesting outside a Florida Tesla dealership and narrowly avoiding them, authorities said.
Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said deputies went to a planned protest Saturday at a West Palm Beach dealership, where suspect Andrew Dutil drove onto the curb and slowly toward the protesters. There were no injuries.
"The protestors had to move out of the way in order to avoid being struck by the vehicle," the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Court records show Dutil, who is being held in the Palm Beach County Jail, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill. It is not clear whether he has a lawyer or when he is due to appear in court.
On his Facebook account, Dutil appeared to have shared content supporting President Donald Trump, including a video depicting Trump and Vice President JD Vance in a "The Dukes of Hazzard" parody video as "The Dukes of Maga."
He also shared a considerable amount of veterans content and wears a military uniform in his profile picture.
In 2022, Dutil also seemed to share posts criticizing electric cars, writing in one post: "Screw electric vehicles. If you drive one, welcome to 1995 where the technology of your car is from. More coal equals more electricity needed for electric vehicles."
The Palm Beach Post reported that Dutil was driving a black Nissan SUV and that the crowd numbered more than 100.
"He drove into a crowd of senior citizens. Everybody was able to move out, but two older women were really almost clipped. We immediately called the cops," Mark Offerman, of the Democratic Progressive Caucus Palm Beach County, which organized the protest, told the newspaper.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The protest was one of several across the country in recent weeks to show opposition to Tesla CEO Elon Musk's politics and actions at the Department of Government Efficiency. Since January, DOGE has slashed government costs and fired thousands of federal workers.
While some Republicans have cheered on his extreme methods, politicians and supporters of both parties have warned of the consequences of remaking the state in such a rapid, hard-line way.
The Democratic Progressive Caucus Palm Beach County plans to protest at the same West Palm Beach dealership every Saturday for the foreseeable future.
"Elon Musk is destroying our democracy, and he’s using the fortune he built at Tesla to do it," the organizers wrote in a message advertising the demonstrations on an activist website.
It continued: "We are taking action at Tesla to stop Musk’s illegal coup AND send a vital message to the American People: we will not surrender democracy to the Trump-Vance-Musk regime to benefit Russian President Vladimir Putin or any dictator or oligarch."
While many protests are peaceful, at least 80 cases of vandalism and damage affecting Tesla vehicles and charging stations have been reported, including cars and charging stations being damaged. At least 10 dealerships have been affected.
The FBI said Friday that protesters were targeting Tesla vehicles and dealerships across the country "with arson, gunfire, and vandalism." But law enforcement officials and domestic terrorism expert said there was no evidence the attacks were coordinated.
The protests are having real-world consequences for Tesla. The company's stock price closed at $248.71 on Friday, having reached a 52-week high of $488.54 in December, although the price is higher than it was for much of 2024.
Musk told his employees at a Tesla all-hands meeting last week that better days are ahead. "Hang on to your stock," he urged them.
