Suspected U-Haul Driver Charged With Assaulting Federal Officers After Bay Area Protest

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced charges against the person accused of backing a U-Haul truck toward a blockade of U.S. Coast Guard officers in Alameda, leading them to open fire, after protests over what was expected to be a major immigration enforcement escalation in the Bay Area last month.

Bella Thompson, 26, is charged with assaulting federal officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon by reversing the truck onto the bridge that leads to the island Coast Guard base around 10 p.m. Oct. 23.

Authorities said she accelerated toward the line of officers and law enforcement vehicles, shutting off access to the island, which is usually closed to the public. The erratic movement caused officers “to fear the possibility that the truck would strike them or their colleagues, or that it contained explosives or had an explosive device,” the U.S. attorney’s office said in a press release announcing Thompson’s arrest on Tuesday.

When she defied orders to stop, authorities said, Coast Guard personnel shot at the truck. At the time, the Department of Homeland Security said the U-Haul driver and a bystander were injured in the shooting and taken to local hospitals.

Thompson was treated at Highland Hospital, where she was detained. She was then taken to John George Psychiatric Hospital, where she was evaluated before being booked into Santa Rita Jail.

The incident came after a day of protest near Alameda’s Coast Guard Island, which was set to be used as a “place of operations” for federal immigration agents ahead of what the Trump administration was calling a “surge” into San Francisco that weekend.

Escalated immigration enforcement — which many warned was likely a precursor to National Guard deployment — was called off in San Francisco and the wider Bay Area, but tensions still flared near the base that day after Border Patrol agents rolled onto the island around 7 a.m.

Hundreds of protesters attempted to block access to and from the base, which is only accessible via bridge, for hours.

One officer threw what appeared to be a flash-bang grenade into the crowd, and a van drove over the ankle of an organizer who was trying to speak with the agents inside, according to activists. Another agent exited their vehicle and shot pepper powder at a local faith leader trying to block the road, according to Penny Nixon, co-director of the Peninsula Solidarity Cohort.

Hours later, when California Highway Patrol officers cleared the road, two protesters were arrested. The crowd mostly dispersed in the afternoon, but federal officers continued to mount a blockade of the bridge late into the night.

Video footage shows that shortly before 10 p.m., a U-Haul truck arrives at Embarcadero and Dennison Street, the Oakland entrance to the island base. The driver appears to get out of the vehicle and join a few remaining protesters for about five minutes, then get back into the truck.

After lining up facing away from the bridge, the truck begins to slowly reverse.

Officers can be heard yelling at the driver before shooting repeatedly at the truck. After the initial gunshots, the van reverses more quickly for another few seconds before coming to a halt and quickly pulling forward.

The vehicle appears to pause for about 30 seconds at the intersection leading off the bridge before driving away.

“Attempting to use a truck to assault federal officers performing their lawful duties is not protest, it is a violent and serious federal crime,” FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge Matt Cobo said in a statement. “Federal officers must be able to carry out their mission without fear of violence, and we will continue to support efforts to ensure that anyone who commits violence against them is held fully accountable under the law.”

Thompson, who lives in Oakland, appears to have been experiencing a mental health crisis prior to the incident. According to a GoFundMe page set up in October, she had recently lost housing and income during a “bipolar disorder episode.”

“Bella is community oriented, dedicated to art and mutual aid — hosting fundraisers, art events, skill shares, and more through her self started community collective: DIY Museum,” the page reads.

Thompson, who grew up in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley and moved permanently to the East Bay in 2023, previously worked as a substitute teacher and organizer of the DIY Museum, a queer arts collective.

If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.