Fields' Drive Forward After His Long Backup

In a previous post titled James Fields' Block-Long Backup on Fourth Street, I argued that Fields first pre-crash backup was quite long and placed him north of Market Street. I provided wto speculative illustrations. In the first illustration, the car begins its backup close to Main Street, and in the second, the car begins in the middle of the Main-Market block. Both illustrations show the backup ending north of Market Street.

A backup beginning close to Main Street

A backup beginning in the middle
of the Main-Market block

When Fields did this long backup, his car still had not passed by the surveillance camera of the Red Pump Kitchen (RPK). In other words, Fields had turned from Market Street south onto Fourth Street and had driven much of the way to Main Street, but not far enough to enter the RPK camera's view. Then Fields stopped and backed up through the Fourth-Market intersection and then idled his car north of that intersection.

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Fields' car was seen idling north of the Fourth-Market intersection by two men, Chris Mahony and Brennan Gilmore. Mahony's public statements have been collected in a SonofNewo video, which I will embed below in this post here. Based on Mahony's statements, I speculate the following sequence of events.

* Mahony and Gilmore were walking east on the north side of Market from Emancipation Park toward the Fourth-Market intersection. When they reached the the Fourth-Market intersection, they noticed that Fields' car was idling north of the intersection although the traffic light was green.

* Mahony and Gilmore turned south onto Fourth Street.

* About 20 seconds later, Mahony saw the Pie Chest cafe on the street's west side. Mahony went into the cafe while Gilmore continued to walk south.

Click on the image to enlarge it.

* About 45 seconds later, Gilmore passed Main Street and stopped well south of the Fourth-Main intersection.

* Fields drove his car south and through the Fourth-Main intersection. The RPK camera's clock was at 13:52:56. Since the clock ran approximately 13 minutes fast, the time is corrected to 13:39:56.

* At the moment when the car passed beyond the camera's view, the 1:10 minute interval began.

* Fields stopped behind Gilmore, who was standing in the middle of the street and looking south toward the counter-protesters, who had begun to walk north on Fourth.

* Mahony came out of the Pie Chest and began walking south to catch up with Gilmore.

* After idling for a short while, Fields backed up his car into the Fourth-Main intersection and stopped.

* Fields revved his engine loudly. Surprised, Gilmore jumped to the side of the street and turned around to look. Gilmore began filming as Fields' car sped by, south toward the crowd of counter-protesters.

* Mahony heard the car fly over a speed bump. He began to rush south.

* After crashing into the crowd, Fields backed up.

* The 1:10 interval ended as the car backed north through the Fourth-Main intersection. The RPK clock showed  13:54:06, which is corrected to 13:41:06.

* Mahony still is in the middle of the Main-Market block, and he photographs the car as it continues to back up toward Market.

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In Gilmore's video, the duration of Fields' drive south and then back into the Fourth-Main intersection is about 45 seconds.

Since the car was out of the RPK camera's view for 70 seconds (1:10 minute), the car was idling and backing up behind Gilmore for about (70 - 45 = ) 25 seconds.

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SonofNewo collected the following statements made publicly by Mahony. (Click on any image to enlarge it.)

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Shortly after the incident on August 12, 2017, Mahony was standing in the Fourth-Main intersection, where he told a reporter the following.

Mahoney's first statement on August 12

The car was, we [Brennan and Chris] were walking down the road [points up 4th Street]. You can see back up there, we were walking down the road to join these protesters, down here [points at crash shite]. And we saw the car whizz straight past us, full throttle effectively ... Maybe 40-50 miles per hour. I usually work in kilometers. It slammed into the crowd. And then we started moving quickly down to try to help people, and we saw it slam back through.

When Mahony said we saw the car whizz straight past us, he meant that Brennan saw that happen.

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Later on August 12, Mahony said the following.

Mahony's second statement on August 12

We were walking down the road as Brennan mentioned [points north up 4th Street]. But we came around the corner, and you could see the car just over the other side of the road, just sat there, looking down the road. And as you said, the protesters were coming down 4th Street. So I thought that's a bit strange, there didn't seem to be any other cars stopping him from going. And then, of course, moments later we heard a car going incredibly fast, down the road, and saw it plow into the crowd, and then it reversed back, and then some of us ran after the car to take a photo.

Some people claim that a video shows Mahony standing in the Main-Market block and photographing Fields' car as the car backs up during Fields' getaway.

Mahony might be the man in the purple shirt photographing the car.

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On August 13, Mahony said the following:

Mahony's first statement on August 13

We [Brennan and I] walked past the car, which was stopped at the top of the hill, looking down the street toward the protesters. And I thought it was strange, because it was at an intersection, it had a green light, but it wasn't going through the intersection, and there were no other cars around. And I didn't think of it again, and began walking down the road towards the anti-racism protesters, who we were going to join. And then maybe 10 to 20 seconds later, the car flew past us.

The last sentence does NOT fit with my hypothesized sequence of events. It's fair for someone to say that Mahony might be lying here for some reason.

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Later on August 13, Mahony said the following:

Mahony's second statement on August 13

We [Brennan and I] actually walked past the car, which was at the top of the hill looking down the street at the protesters. And I thought to myself, "It's strange", because the car was at an intersection but wasn't driving through the intersection. It had a green light, and it was just sat there. And I didn't think much more of it, but then 20 seconds or so laer, it came screaming past us and into the crowd of protesters.

Again, this last sentence about the 20 seconds does NOT fit with my hypothesized sequence of events.

This statement is a major problem for my explanation. A possible explanation is that Mahony has told his story so many times that he began tell his story in a rushed and sloppy manner.

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Still later on August 13, Mahony said the following.

Mahony's third statement on August 13

First I saw the car at the top of the hill, before it came down. We walked past it. And I thought it was very strange that the car wasn't going through the intersection. It was sat there at the traffic light, no other cars around, but with a green light. Tinted windows.

And I didn't think too much. I walked down the road, and maybe 10 to 20 seconds later, I saw a coffee shop that I thought might be open, walked off the middle of the road, and then heard it hit the speed bump and sort of bounce.

And then I looked back and saw it go through the next block and then plow into the group of people.

I was right next to your previous guest, Brennan, who was taking the footage at the time.

Here Mahony clarifies that the "10 to 20 seconds" is the duration of his walk from the Fourth-Market intersection to the Pie Chest coffee shop.

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For a different interpretation of the evidence, watch the following two SonofNewo videos.

At about 5:38 in the second video, SonofNewo shows where the RPK camera was mounted.