Truck carrying anti-shah banner drives through Iran demonstration in Los Angeles
One person hit but no serious injuries, according to Los Angeles police; driver detained after being swarmed by anti-regime demonstrators
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LOS ANGELES, California — Los Angeles police responded Sunday after somebody drove a U-Haul box truck down a street crowded with marchers demonstrating in support of the Iranian people. Protesters scrambled out of the way and then ran after the speeding vehicle to try to attack the driver.
The U-Haul truck, with a window and side mirrors shattered, was stopped several blocks away and surrounded by police cars. ABC7 news helicopter footage showed officers keeping the crowd at bay as demonstrators swarmed the truck, throwing punches at the driver and thrusting flagpoles through the driver’s side window.
The driver, a man who was not identified, was detained “pending further investigation,” police said in a statement on Sunday evening.
The police statement said one person was hit by the truck, but nobody was seriously hurt. Paramedics evaluated two people, but both declined treatment, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
A banner attached to the truck said “No Shah. No Regime. USA: Don’t Repeat 1953. No Mullah,” an apparent reference to a US-backed coup that year that toppled then Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.
The August 1953 coup stemmed from US fears over the Soviet Union increasingly wanting a piece of Iran as communists agitated within the country. The ground had been laid partially by the British, who wanted to wrest back access to the Iranian oil industry, which had been nationalized earlier by Mossadegh.
We were about to be hit and possibly killed at a peaceful protest in Los Angeles supporting the people of Iran!!!
A van deliberately drove into the crowd. Police could not stop the driver in time. Several protesters were hit. What stopped him were brave young people who jumped… pic.twitter.com/UUiQOFpXX5
— Ryan Alimo (@RyanAlimo) January 12, 2026
The coup toppled Mossadegh and cemented the power of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. It also lit the fuse for the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which saw the fatally ill Shah flee Iran and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini usher in the theocracy that still governs the country.
A crowd of demonstrators, some waving the flag of Iran before the Islamic Revolution, had gathered Sunday afternoon along Veteran Avenue in LA’s Westwood neighborhood to protest against the Iranian theocracy. Police eventually issued a dispersal order, and by 5 p.m. only about a hundred protesters were still in the area, ABC7 reported.
Activists say a crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran has killed more than 530 people. Protesters flooded the streets in Iran’s capital of Tehran and its second-largest city again Sunday.
Los Angeles is home to the largest Iranian community outside of Iran.
The Times of Israel Community.