U-Haul truck collides with marchers at Los Angeles Iran protest

# U-Haul truck collides with marchers at Los Angeles Iran protest

Event date: 2026-01-11

A U-Haul truck collided with marchers during an anti-Iranian government protest in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon, according to authorities, injuring two people who were identified at the scene but declined transport to hospital. Police said the driver, described as an adult male, was detained pending further investigation.

The confrontation took place around 3:30 p.m. on Veteran Avenue near the Federal Building in West Los Angeles. Video from the scene showed the truck trying to move through the march while demonstrators struck the vehicle with their hands and flags. After the truck stopped, protesters confronted the driver and officers pushed the crowd back.

The protest itself was linked to demonstrations against the Iranian government that have been taking place since late December. Witnesses and social-media footage showed protesters carrying flags with the lion-and-sun symbol associated with Iranian opposition movements. The truck also displayed a message reading, "No shah. No regime. USA: Don't repeat 1953. No mullah," although it was not clear whether that wording was placed by the driver or already on the vehicle.

Authorities did not immediately release the driver's identity or say what led him to drive into the march. That leaves the incident open as both a public-safety case and a protest-related confrontation. For now, the only verified outcome is that the truck reached the crowd, two people were checked at the scene and the driver was taken into custody while investigators sort out intent.

The authorities' immediate challenge is to determine whether the driver was trying to breach the march, intimidate the crowd or simply got caught in the protest route. The truck was later stopped in the area, two patients were identified at the scene and no additional victims were found, but officials have not said whether criminal charges will follow. The protest message on the truck, with its references to 1953 and regime change, adds a political layer to a scene that could otherwise have been treated as a traffic incident. That ambiguity is why investigators will likely focus first on video, witness accounts and the driver's own explanation, while marchers remember how quickly a demonstration can turn into a public-safety case.

The truck case will likely be judged against the footage as much as the police report. Video showed the driver trying to move through a march, the crowd hitting the vehicle and officers eventually pushing people back. Because the authorities did not release the driver's identity or explain the cause, the scene remains open to competing interpretations: accident, intimidation or something more deliberate. The practical outcome, however, is not in dispute. Two people were checked at the scene, the driver was detained and a political protest in the city turned into a police investigation.

The presence of the slogan on the truck is one reason the scene drew so much attention, because it made the vehicle itself part of the protest's political language. But the source never resolves who placed the message there, and that uncertainty is important. If the wording belonged to the driver, it would add motive questions; if it was already on the vehicle, it would only deepen the confusion. Either way, the incident crossed from protest friction into a police matter the moment the truck met the crowd.