Watch Protester and Driver Point Guns in Each Other's Faces in Tense Standoff in Oregon

News By TooFab Staff |
Reddit

Miraculously -- nobody pulls the trigger.

A video circulating on social media is showing just how close protests in Oregon are to becoming bloodbaths.

The four second clip shows a motorist and a protester, just inches apart, pointing guns in each other's faces.

The widely circulated video sees the driver sitting in his truck with the door open, holding his handgun in one hand, pointed squarely at a protester's face. The protester in return grips his firearm in both hands, pointing it right back at him through his truck window.

Neither man is backing down as the crowd yells behind them.

A longer 2.5 minute video posted to Reddit added some context to the scene, which unfolded in Eugene over the weekend.

Protesters appear to have blocked a street, forcing drivers to go the long way around.

But one incensed pick-up driver refuses, flashing his gun and telling protesters to get out of his way.

Vastly outnumbered, he finally relents and drives off; but something causes him to stop and open his car door, leading to the armed and very nearly deadly stand-off.

Truck driver pulls a gun on protesters then one of the protester points a gun at him from r/PublicFreakout

The two men can be heard telling each other to drop their guns; thankfully no one pulls the trigger and the truck eventually drives away.

A very similar situation had a very different outcome in Austin, Texas on Saturday night, when a protester was shot dead by a driver after he approached the vehicle carrying an assault rifle.

Witnesses claimed 28-year-old Garrett Foster died trying to protect his wheelchair-bound fiancee, after the car drove at them.

The car fled the scene, but the driver handed himself into police afterwards; he was released after telling investigators he fired in self-defense.

There were other violent scenes captured in Eugene over the weekend too, where multiple rallies were held in solidarity with state sister city Portland.

Separate social media videos show a teenage girl, reportedly just 14, being tackled to the ground by three officers, after watching another boy on a bicycle beside her get punched in the head.