Over the weekend, the term “Hawkeye” started to trend on Twitter, but it wound up having nothing to do with either the character from the MCU or the actor who played him, Jeremy Renner. Instead, it turned out to be due to an individual who drove to the downtown area of Salt Lake City during one of the protests and got out of the car brandishing a bow and arrow. Hawkeye, the bow-wielding member of the Avengers, has been in five of the MCU films and has been awaiting a solo adventure, which will eventually debut on Disney+.
The Black Lives Matter protests, which have spread across the United States since the death of George Floyd, have been witness to incidents ranging from peaceful moments between protestors and police to violent clashes and looting. With video-capable smartphones now ubiquitous, scenes are being captured and posted to social media within moments of their occurrence. Some of those scenes have included costumed heroes like Batman joining alongside the protestors.
However, when Hawkeye started trending, it became clear this wasn’t a case of a cosplayer stepping in, but rather a motorist blocked in traffic by one of the protests. On getting out of his car, he took out a compound bow and an arrow and nocked it while protestors called for him to put it away. Various videos recorded the incident showing him drawing the bow and attempting to aim at demonstrators. As he did so, protestors managed to close in and tackle McCormick. Using his bow as his weapon of choice quickly earned him the social media nickname of Hawkeye.
Several protestors had rushed to the police line to let them know about the incident, with several officers moving and taking custody of the individual (who later identified himself in an interview as Brandon McCormick). Meanwhile, protestors purportedly flipped his vehicle and set it ablaze. In the interview, McCormick expressed that protestors had reached through his car’s window and assaulted him before he exited his vehicle. Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall later made a statement regarding the incident expressing that detectives had collected sufficient information and were planning to file charges against McCormick in the days ahead.
No arrow-related injuries were reported by the protestors, somewhat debunking the Hawkeye moniker, since his primary superpower is being unable to miss his target. So far, the protests around the country continue to reverberate, with more incidents of violence being documented and reported.
Source: Twitter
