Man who drove into crowd and shot Seattle protester won’t be charged with assault

SEATTLE — A man who was charged with first-degree assault after driving into a crowd and shooting a man during protests on Seattle’s Capitol Hill in 2020 had his case resolved with a plea to reckless driving, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

On June 7, 2020, Nikolas Fernandez sped in his car toward a crowd of protesters on Capitol Hill. As he approached a makeshift barricade, with people yelling at him to stop, protester Dan Gregory reached through the open window, grabbed the steering wheel and punched Fernandez.

Investigators said Fernandez used the Glock 26 on his passenger seat to shoot Gregory in the shoulder.

According to charging documents, Fernandez later told officers he might have pointed the gun at other people before he ran into the police line to surrender.

King County Prosecuting Attorney Leesa Manion said the following in a letter to the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office on Friday:

There is no doubt that the victim in this case felt scared when he saw the defendant driving down the closed street. The video evidence in this case shows that he and other protestors responded in a way that they thought was necessary to protect themselves and others. The defendant in this case has raised a self-defense claim. Accordingly, the jury in this case would be required to view the case from the defendant’s perspective when evaluating his self-defense claim. Over the course of the follow-up investigation, it has become clear that we cannot meet the high burden of disproving self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt, which is the standard required by law. This case has been reviewed and discussed by some of the most experienced attorneys in our office, and in light of the follow-up investigation, we do not think we can prove an assault charge beyond a reasonable doubt.

Manion noted that Fernandez is the brother of a Seattle police officer, but stressed that that did not factor into the office’s resolution of the case.

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