The person whom federal authorities believe was shot while accelerating a U-Haul truck backward toward federal agents at a Coast Guard Island protest two weeks ago has been charged in federal court with assaulting federal officers.
Bella Thompson, who also goes by Bella Castillo or Brendan Munro Thompson, according to prosecutors, is accused of assault on a federal officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon. She first appeared in federal district court Tuesday morning.
U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian announced the charges today in a press release, which included a copy of the criminal complaint. The case, however, remains under seal, and other records cannot be accessed, according to the federal court’s website.
On the evening of Oct. 23, several U.S. Coast Guard agents were standing watch on the bridge connecting Coast Guard Island to Oakland. Demonstrators had been protesting the planned immigration enforcement operation in the San Francisco Bay Area since early in the morning. Around 10 p.m., the driver of a U-Haul rental truck drove onto the bridge and accelerated in reverse toward the federal agents. Video of the incident shows the U-Haul did not hit any of the Coast Guard personnel.
According to a complaint filed by FBI Special Agent Mikael Bergh on Oct. 30, and unsealed today, the federal agents “feared the possibility that the truck was a vehicle borne Improvised Explosive Device,” or that additional people were concealed inside the truck and “would open fire on them.”
“This fear for their lives, and the lives of their USCG colleagues, led them to open fire on the U-Haul truck to stop the threat,” Bergh wrote in his complaint.
A bystander who was near the protest at the foot of the bridge was also struck by a bullet fragment. They were treated at a local hospital and released.
According to the complaint, after the shooting, the U-Haul driver steered the truck on Dennison Street, where they exited the cab and got into another car.
According to police, Thompson was admitted to Highland Hospital shortly after 10 p.m. after being transported there by someone else. She was treated for a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the back, between her shoulder blades.
Shortly afterward, Oakland police officers investigating the shooting identified Thompson as a suspect after Highland Hospital collected her driver’s license upon admission. Officers with the Alameda Police Department responded to the hospital and detained Thompson. According to the criminal complaint unsealed today, among Thompson’s personal belongings at the hospital, the officers found multicolored pants they believed belonged to the driver of the U-Haul truck.
The Alameda police officer told Bergh that the suspect “identified as transgender, and goes by the name ‘Bella,’” the FBI special agent wrote.
Thompson was subsequently admitted to a psychiatric hospital, but federal authorities did not explain why.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Thompson was booked into Santa Rita Jail last weekend on a misdemeanor charge of obstructing a peace officer after allegedly attempting to escape from Highland Hospital on Oct. 23. Thompson does not appear to have any criminal convictions, according to the Chronicle.
According to the East Bay Times, one of Thompson’s friends set up a GoFundMe fundraiser for her three days before the shooting after she recently lost housing and experienced a “bipolar disorder episode.”
The Oakland branch of the U.S. Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the case, following an investigation by the FBI.
Thompson’s next court appearance is scheduled for Nov. 10.
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