Background: The scene of the crash in the Safeway parking lot on Donner Pass Road in Truckee, California (GoFundMe). Inset: The Tahoe Titans baseball team (GoFundMe).
A man is accused of intentionally driving his pickup truck into a group of youth baseball players and their families fundraising outside of a California Safeway store.
Jonathan Maurer, 49, faces charges including eight counts of attempted murder, multiple counts of assault with a deadly weapon, "and several sentencing enhancements, including allegations of great bodily injury and prior criminal history," the Nevada County District Attorney's Office announced.
According to a GoFundMe set up for the Tahoe Titans baseball team, the boys were "doing what small-town kids do best: working hard and supporting each other." They were selling meat jerky outside a Safeway supermarket on Saturday to help raise money for their upcoming visit to Cooperstown All-Star Village in New York.
As the fundraiser notes, by 2 p.m., they had raised $2,000, but "then the unthinkable happened."
"A man drove his truck into the table and ran over the boys and moms," the GoFundMe says, stating two boys and one mother were hit and needed to be taken by ambulance to the hospital.
At least seven people in total were injured in the crash — three players, three parents, and one other family member of one of the boys, Sacramento-based CBS affiliate KOVR reported. Every one of them survived.
One of the parents recalled the moments before the crash.
"He put a cigarette out on one of our signs, then came back out, gave us a weird look, mumbled something under his breath and walked away," Jamie DeWit told the outlet. "The next thing I knew, myself and our boys were being pulled out of rubble."
One of the players, Rowan Grant, added to KOVR: "I remember hearing the truck a half second before I got hit… When I got hit, I just felt a little tingle and then the pain came on. I got flung away."
A photo shared by the GoFundMe shows a white pickup truck parked up against the side of a store, with shattered glass and other damage to the store.
"The allegations that this act was intentional and directed at kids is hard to comprehend," said Jesse Wilson, Nevada County district attorney. "Our office will work through the criminal justice process and, if the evidence supports the charges, do everything we can, to the fullest extent of the law, to hold this individual accountable, send a clear message that this behavior has no place in society, and protect the public from further harm."
Authorities have not released a possible motive for Maurer.
Despite the harrowing ordeal, the Tahoe Titans said they are grateful for the support they have been shown and are still excited about their trip to New York.