A protester at a vigil Saturday night for Stephon Clark was hit by a
Sacramento County Sheriff's Department vehicle on Florin Road, the
latest tense moment between law enforcement and activists following the
March 18 police shooting death of the unarmed black man.
Witnesses and the struck protester said the sheriff's vehicle left the scene.
The collision, captured on video
by Guy Danilowitz of the National Lawyers Guild, occurred as protesters
marched on Florin Road in south Sacramento.
The activist struck was Wanda
Cleveland, a regular at Sacramento City Council meetings. She lay
immobile on her side in the street until a fire department crew arrived
to pick her up.
Cleveland was released from Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento
Medical Center after midnight, with bruises on her arm and the back of
her head.
"He never even stopped. It was a
hit and run. If I did that I’d be charged," Cleveland said at the
hospital. "It's disregard for human life."
The sheriff's deputy four times sounded his siren and said, "Back away from my vehicle." He slowly pulled forward and left the scene. A second sheriff's vehicle followed and struck Cleveland, sending her to the curb, the Channel 10 video shows.
Cleveland said that when the first vehicle said to clear out, she started to walk toward the curb because her arthritis was making her knees weak. The second vehicle driver made no request, she said, and abruptly accelerated and hit her in the knee, sending her into the air.
"I heard wheels spin. And then I saw her body flung to the curb," Tifanei Ressl-Moyer, another legal observer who witnessed the incident, said. "The vehicle sped off and some protesters went after them."
The sheriff's department release said the patrol vehicle was traveling at "slow speeds" when the collision occurred.
If you watch the video like I have, over and over, you can clearly see that the hit was intentional, and the fact this "officer" drove away speaks volumes for the Sacramento Sheriff Department. Had this been a protestor and an officer witnessed the same exact thing he would've been dragged out of the car and arrested.
Take a look;
The sheriff's deputy four times sounded his siren and said, "Back away from my vehicle." He slowly pulled forward and left the scene. A second sheriff's vehicle followed and struck Cleveland, sending her to the curb, the Channel 10 video shows.
Cleveland said that when the first vehicle said to clear out, she started to walk toward the curb because her arthritis was making her knees weak. The second vehicle driver made no request, she said, and abruptly accelerated and hit her in the knee, sending her into the air.
"I heard wheels spin. And then I saw her body flung to the curb," Tifanei Ressl-Moyer, another legal observer who witnessed the incident, said. "The vehicle sped off and some protesters went after them."
The sheriff's department release said the patrol vehicle was traveling at "slow speeds" when the collision occurred.
If you watch the video like I have, over and over, you can clearly see that the hit was intentional, and the fact this "officer" drove away speaks volumes for the Sacramento Sheriff Department. Had this been a protestor and an officer witnessed the same exact thing he would've been dragged out of the car and arrested.
Take a look;
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