One witness to the shooting, James Sasinowski, told CNN that the driver of the car initiated the encounter by turning on Congress Avenue and accelerating toward the protesters.

"This was intentional. It was aggressive and he accelerated into a crowd of protesters," Sasinowski said. "He could have waited for us to pass or he could have gone slowly. We would have allowed him to go through."

"This was intentional," Sasinowski said in an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo. "It was aggressive and he accelerated into a crowd of protesters. He could have waited for us to pass or he could have gone slowly. We would have allowed him to go through."

Sasinowski said it was less than 10 seconds between the driver stopping his vehicle and when the shots were fired. He said he did not see whether Foster pointed his gun at the car and was about 20 feet away when he heard the first gunshots.

He said he looked over his shoulder and saw the driver's arm fully extended out of the window and holding a handgun. The driver fired several more shots, Sasinowski said.

"I want to be very clear that the driver incited the violence, he accelerated into the crowd of people and he shot first," he said.