PORTLAND, Ore. — The man suspected of hitting two protesters on I-5 in Seattle made his first court appearance Monday.
"It's hard to put yourself in their shoes," said Abigail Annable, a friend to Diaz Love, who was hit by the car. "I don't know the motive. Nobody does at this point."
Love survived the crash early Saturday morning.
"You see these awful events happening at different protests and it's heart-wrenching," said Annable. "To find out it's someone you know, everything stops."
Annable says Love was in a crowd of demonstrators occupying the interstate when a car came barreling down the freeway.
"It happened so fast," said independent journalist and witness Mark Taylor-Canfield. "By the time I jumped out of the lane that car had already entered the crowd where people were protesting."
24-year-old Summer Taylor was killed. Love survived.
"I'm alive and stable. In a lot of pain. I cannot believe Summer was murdered. If they thought this murder would make us back down, they were wrong. Very wrong," Love wrote on Facebook Sunday.
"Diaz is very passionate," said Annable. "When they find something they want to be involved in they throw themselves completely into it."
Annable says before joining the Black Lives Matter movement, Love was part of the demonstrations in Portland.
"They want to be involved and help people get their voices heard," said Annable.
It is not going unnoticed. A Go Fund Me organized by Annable has already raised more than $70,000 to go towards Love's recovery.
"We're absolutely blown away by the support," said Annable. "It's overwhelming but it's wonderful."
The suspect has not been formally charged. He is under investigation for vehicular assault. He is in the King County Jail. A judge set bail at more than $1 million.