A Rhode Island man injured Wednesday night when a truck drove through a line of anti-ICE demonstrators outside a detention facility is a one-time Springfield lawyer, who has been active in anti-violence campaigns and statewide Democratic politics.
Jerry A. Belair of Warren, Rhode Island, was identified in press reports as among those injured at the protest outside the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Centrals Falls.
Members of the group Never Again Action were blocking the entrance to the facility because it is used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house migrants being detained by the federal agency.
A correctional officer employed at the facility drove through the line of protesters, injuring two.
Belair suffered a broken leg and possible internal injuries, according to CNN. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
Videos of the incident have been broadcast over television and internet.
Five people were taken to the hospital, Matt Harvey, a Never Again Action spokesperson and organizer, told TIME magazine.
A correctional officer at the facility, Capt. Thomas Woodworth, is on administrative leave pending an investigation by the facility’s warden, WBZ-TV, CBS 4, in Boston reported. The Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office also said it would investigate.
Belair is general counsel and director of leasing for the Meredith Corporation, a real estate and property development corporation that has properties across Massachusetts, including Springfield.
He is a former resident of the Sixteen Acres neighborhood and used to have an office on Maple Street.
In the 1990s and 2000s, he was active in local and statewide Democratic politics. He was a treasurer of the city’s Ward 5 Democratic Committee, and the statewide co-chairman of Scott Harshbarger’s failed run for governor.
In the late 1990s, he was active as a founder and legislative chairman for the group Stop Handgun Violence, and helped lobby for stricter gun laws.
He was also active with groups that sought to aid the homeless in Boston.
Jerry A. Belair , seen here in a 2001 photo.