Police have no leads on drive-by attack on Fort Bragg Trump protesters- but think attack might not have been political.

Mendocino Indivisible protests go on undaunted, every Saturday outside Town Hall, join them today

Editor’s note, the photos are not intended to show any victims of the gel pellet attack They are from a different week.

Mendocino Indivisible protesters have been at it weekly since January, with protests featuring as many as 1000+ people in Fort Bragg. There have been few counterprotests. Some have cursed, but the most common negative statements seems to be people racing the car engine while driving by. At the last protest, one protester joked back with a sign that said “Race your engine if you support pedophiles.”

But on June 21, protesters were attacked by someone firing a projectile out the window with a gun designed for games. At first, the half dozen people who heard and saw three people being hit weren’t sure what hit them. Most everybody else had no idea what happened. The projectiles stung but didn’t break the skin. A pellet gun or pumped up bb gun can be a deadly weapon but not the newer types of guns most familiar under the Airsoft name. They were almost certainly from a gel gaming gun, although no pellets were recovered at the scene, we learned.

Read our previous story, with interviews of the victim
These Airsoft-type gel pellets are more like paintball projectiles without the paint or mess. While they are boosted by many as not being able to cause injury, any Google search will show welts and pain caused, and yes, they have put out eyes. Scientific studies have shown that it is not an urban legend and that this is the most common serious injury both with airsoft type guns and bb guns. Small animals can also be killed by gel pellet attacks.

Any drive-by attack is considered a crime, not a prank. Fort Bragg does not want to have its tourists or locals scared by pranksters firing from a car! At the start of protests nationwide, there were widespread fears that the Trump Administration would respond with arrests or that groups like the Proud Boys might attack. So far that has not happened with the regular protests. In Los Angeles, protesters clashed with ICE. Fort Bragg’s attack was one of the few documented attacks on the regular “indivisible” or “no kings” protesters. Nothing happened locally the week of No Kings, when protesters here filled the Noyo Bridge. Until the pelleting, there had been no violence either way.
Several “No Kings” protests against the Trump administration, particularly around the time of a military parade, saw some protesters struck by vehicles. In Culpeper, Virginia, a driver intentionally accelerated into a crowd, resulting in charges of reckless driving. In San Francisco, several protesters were struck by a vehicle, with the driver fleeing the scene. But there have been few organized counterprotests nor concerted attacks as feared, at least according to the online media. Mendocino Indivisible has been undaunted by any of it and continues their weekly protest events every Saturday before noon.
The Mendocino Indivisible chapter communicates on Facebook. The national Indivisible website is found here. The Ukiah Indivisible group has a site here.
This protest where the pellet attack happened the week after No Kings. And there is no proof this had anything to do with the protests. In fact, the evidence is to the contrary.
“There was a previous incident reported by a group walking who were not protestors. So, it doesn’t appear this had anything to do with the protest, particularly, but we’re still working it,” said Fort Bragg Police Chief Neil Cervenka.
So far, whoever shot those airsoft-type pellets at Trump protesters in Fort Bragg and a random group of tourists has gotten away with the attacks. Without someone giving Fort Bragg police more evidence, the case is stalled.
“No one could give us a specific description of the suspect and the vehicle description was a small, dark car. During that time, our Flock cameras showed about 10,000 cars coming into the city per day. Hundreds of those were small, dark cars. We canvassed the area for surveillance video, but got no real leads. Without even a single digit of a license plate or a very unique identifying mark in view of the camera, it will be difficult to find a direction for the investigation,” Cervenka said.
An interesting site is the Global Protest Tracker. It shows what issues \enraging people around the world to hit the streets in protest. During the Obama administration, many nations had gone back toward the center after decades of marching to the right since 1980. That prompted many protests like the Tea Party movement in the USA. Now, as most world governments have moved the furthest to the right as has been true since the 1930s, the protests are mostly on the left.
Editor’s note-People have asked us why this story was not carried by other local media. The answer is always the same as alway- no press release was issued. We now have at least 20 stories that we generated with reporting, not press releases. But so many print every press release that comes in, that strangely has become the standard- PRESS RELEASE NEWS ONLY! In the view of Mendocinoocoast.news. News should never be determined this way and never used to be but it is now. Readers will find us more controversial than those who work only by the direction of the authorities. Who would argue with the edicts of governments, corporations and non-profits? Not the media of 2025, that is for sure. But when we do act independently, we get pushback. Being the only one asking questions of power makes this road bumpy to travel.