SEATTLE — On Thursday night, video shows John Miller being attacked by an unknown man while he and members of the Seattle Bike Brigade were guiding traffic in North Seattle.
The group was helping protesters from the Every Day March make their way through.
“It was pretty odd that he was holding a megaphone, he was using it to scream at us from a distance for a little bit,” Miller said.
Miller says that unknown man then walked up to him and he initially believed the man was going to yell at him – but he didn’t.
“He just swung at me unexpectedly. I kept my hands on my bike the whole time. He just swung at me and conked me on the head,” Miller said.
The video shows Miller and other bike brigaders blocking a large row of cars.
Suddenly a man walks on screen and right up to Miller and hits him with a megaphone.
Miller says the helmet took most of the hit, but he was still taken to a nearby hospital to get stitched up. He also said he has the megaphone the man hit him with.
The video of the attack has been widely shared on social media. The man is heard screaming at John to “get the [expletive] out of my neighborhood.”
Miller says he has not filed a police report and isn’t sure if he will.
“I believe that since the Seattle Police Officers Guild has been kicked out of the King County Labor Council; I don't believe that they're very committed to protecting the public anymore,” he said.
Miller says he’s been helping the brigade since the protests began on May 30. He says this attack will not deter him from helping protestors in the future, because the work is too important. He did have this message for the man who hit him.
“I would like to say that I'm not angry at him. I'm just disappointed. And I would like to know why he did it. I have no idea why he did it. Perhaps he was just angry perhaps it was he was just too late for something, and perhaps he was stopped you know by the march. Or he could be racist, I don't know,” he said.
Miller added he may consider legal action if the man can be identified.
Given what happened to him, Miller says he’s not likely to give people who approach him like the benefit of the doubt in the future.
“I'm going to anticipate violence, more often. So, I'm going to do more than defend myself to maybe take preventative measures,” he said.
The Every Day March is a group of protestors who march each day around the city.
Thursday, they were marching towards Seattle City Councilmember Debora Juarez’s home. She is one of two council members who have not supported the demands to defund the Seattle Police Department by 50%. The group also wants all protesters released from jail and charges dropped, and for Mayor Jenny Durkan to resign.