Truck driver slams protesters who beat him unconscious when he stopped to help trans robbery victim

The man who was beaten unconscious by Black Lives Matter protesters in Portland, Oregon, last week said his assailants don’t practice what they preach after they descended on him when he tried to stop a trans woman from being robbed.

Adam Haner crashed his pickup truck on a sidewalk near a BLM demonstration in the Northwest city last Sunday evening before he was pulled from the vehicle and beaten.

Portland has been the site of daily and nightly protests and clashes with law enforcement since the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

Video footage showed a man, believed to be 25-year-old Marquise Love, kicking Haner unconscious.

Haner, who was driving his truck with his girlfriend, Tammie Martin, in the passenger seat, also suffered two black eyes in the vicious beating.

‘I thought that’s what they were down there trying to fight, was this kind of behavior toward them, but they’re exhibiting the same behavior that they’re trying to stop,’ Haner told the Fox News show Watters’ World on Saturday.

Haner told Fox News that he and Martin were headed to a 7 Eleven convenience store when they noticed a young transgender woman being robbed of her backpack.

He said that when he intervened, he was targeted by several people who punched him and called him a white supremacist.

Haner then decided to get back into his truck and drive away. But an engine failure caused the vehicle to stall.

That’s when several people descended on him, though Haner denies claims that he tried to mow down BLM protesters with his truck.

‘I warned everyone to get out of my way when I did start my truck. I’d been down there long enough,’ he said.

‘They knew when my truck started, to get out of the way.’

Haner continued: ‘I was down there for a lengthy amount of time. I managed not to hurt anyone while I was down there, but myself, evidently.

‘I can’t say the same to them.’

Haner and Martin also criticized Portland police for not responding to the scene quickly enough.

Haner said it took police 10 minutes to reach him after a 911 call was placed by his girlfriend saying that he had been knocked unconscious.

Love turned himself in to police on Friday morning following a city-wide manhunt that lasted four days.

Online records show he has now been charged with felony assault, felony coercion and felony riot. Bail has been set at $260,000.

Love is accused of punching and kicking Haner in the head after he accidentally became caught up in a protest on Sunday evening.

Haner crashed his pickup truck on a sidewalk near the demonstration, before he was pulled from the vehicle and beaten.

Video footage showed a man – believed to be Love – kicking Haner unconscious. The victim also suffered two black eyes in the vicious beating.

Love already has a lengthy criminal record which includes charges for domestic assault, interfering with public transport, driving without a license, domestic harassment and guns charges.

In a statement on Friday, Portland Police Chief confirmed the arrest, but did not say what provoked Love to hand himself in.

‘I am pleased the suspect in this case turned himself in and appreciate all of the efforts to facilitate this safe resolution,’ he stated.

‘Thank you to all of the members of the public who have provided information and tips to our investigators. Your assistance is very much appreciated.’

Footage of Haner’s beating has sparked outrage on the internet since it first began circulating late on Sunday.

In the video, demonstrators are seen hauling Haner out from his truck and throwing him to the ground. The BLM protesters appear to believe that he deliberately plowed his vehicle into them.

Hanner, who was profusely bleeding from the head, was ordered to sit on the ground and told to ‘wait for police to arrive.’

However, he was knocked out by a vicious kick to the side of his head. The kick was purportedly made by Love.

As he lay unconscious on the ground, shouts of ‘Black Lives Matter’ were heard as other protesters attempted to provide first aid.

Others began ransacking the man’s truck and when questioned by bystanders, they explained that they were simply ‘checking for weapons.’

A look into his recent social media activity revealed that he has shared memes poking fun at Black Lives Matter protests.

One of his posts read: ‘Would it be wrong to follow rioters home and burn down their properties? Asking for a friend.’

Haner has denied deliberately trying to provoke the protesters.

On Thursday evening, police also released a photo of an eyewitness, and asked him to come forward saying he may be able to provide more information on the attack.

David Hernandez, who shot the graphic footage, says he believes Haner was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.

‘I think he just felt extremely threatened,’ Hernandez said in an interview.

‘They chased him… until he finally crashed. When they finally caught up to him, they went nuts.

‘This was violent, extremely violent. Sometimes I forget I’m walking the streets of an American city in the Northwest. Sometimes it feels like you’re walking in a Third World county.’

Meanwhile, prior to his arrest on Friday, Love had been posting messages on Snapchat, according to The Sun.

In one of the posts, he can be seen asking followers for money in case he is arrested for the attack on Haner.

‘Might go to jail for murder tonight for a racist when all I did was fight him look it up on twitter put money on my books and come see me,’ he allegedly sent from his Snapchat account, alongside a selfie.

The arrest comes after another wild night in Portland, during which protesters tried to smash into an ICE building and clashed with federal agents on the 84th day of violence in the city.

Demonstrations that often turn violent have racked Oregon’s biggest city for more than two months following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Cops fired tear gas to disperse the crowds after protesters pounded on the window of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement complex and spray-painted expletives on the walls.

Police claimed protesters were throwing glass bottles and ‘softball-sized rocks’ and shining lasers at federal officers leaving the ICE building, while two people were arrested before the crowd was finally cleared after 1am. Two arrests were made on charges of ‘interfering with a peace officer and disorderly conduct’, police said.

Portland’s police chief pleaded with protesters to call off the ‘endless destruction’ as he condemned the ‘senseless criminal activity’ in the city. Officers sustained minor injuries Wednesday, a police statement said, without specifying how many were injured.