A homeless man was heard screaming for help after workers tried to bulldoze his tent while clearing a homeless campsite.
The incident took place at a homeless encampment under an overpass on L Street in Washington DC where the City’s Department of Health and Human Services workers were instructed to clear the area.
While clearing the area and bulldozing the tents belonging to homeless people, the crews nearly drove over a homeless man who got trapped in his tent.
As the department insisted, the workers carefully checked all of the tents before proceeding with their operations. They, however, apparently managed to overlook one homeless man who was still in his tent when they began bulldozing the encampment.
Fortunately, the operation came to a halt after homeless advocates who had gathered at the scene heard the man yelling for help as the machine began clearing the tents from the sidewalk.
“Across the street, we heard the man yelling, but they [the workers] didn’t hear him when they were right next to them so we jumped over the things on the sidewalk to get to him,” one of the witnesses, Yonce X, said in an interview with WTOP.
After the incident, an intense standoff between the advocates and the police took place as some of the activists attempted to get past the police to reach the homeless man.
“They had to cut a hole to make sure this person was okay and they brought in the fire department who actually got him out,” another advocate, Andrew Anderson, told WUSA9.
“They didn’t actually take any time to make sure anyone was in there, they just grabbed the tents and took them out.”
Though the incident caused the clearing of the encampment under the overpass to be halted for a day, the operations resumed on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the City’s deputy mayor for health and human services reassured the public that such an incident will not happen again.
“There will be a check to make sure there is absolutely nobody in that tent, and then a person will stand there while the Bobcat comes to make sure nobody comes in the tent after the check is made,” Wayne Turnage said in an interview with WTOP.
“Whatever the case, we will make sure that it does not happen again.”
After the incident, the homeless man was reportedly taken to a hospital for a check-up. He allegedly didn’t suffer any visible injuries during the incident.
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