‘SHERIFF’ HIT-RUN
A Sacramento County Sheriff ’s Department SUV struck a protesting great-grandmother at a Saturday vigil marking the recent police shooting death of Stephon Clark — and then sped off without stopping, witnesses said.
Wanda Cleveland, 61, was one of a few dozen activists gathered as two department SUVs tried to weave their way through the throng around 8:40 p.m. local time.
The marchers started to retreat after the driver of the lead car repeatedly ordered via loudspeaker, “Back away from my vehicle,” but Cleveland — identified as a grandmother of seven and greatgrandmother of two — wasn’t fast enough.
After the f irst vehicle eased through the crowd without incident, the second SUV sharply accelerated, clipping Cleveland on her way back to the sidewalk, video of the incident shows.
“I heard wheels spin. And then I saw her body flung to the curb,” Tifanei Ressl-Moyer, a legal observer supervising the rally, told The Sacramento Bee.
“The vehicle sped off and some protesters went after them.”
Cleveland lay helpless in the street until f irst responders arrived to bring her to a local hospital.
“He never even stopped. It was a hit-and-run,” Cleveland told the paper at the hospital, where she was treated for bruises to her arm and neck. “If I did that, I’d be charged.”
“It’s disregard for human life,” she added.
Another legal observer, Cres Velluchi, jotted down the number of the vehicle that struck Cleveland. But when he tried to pass it along to the California Highway Patrol, they declined to take the report, Velluchi told The Bee.
A small group — some among them chanting, “Hit and run” — marched on the sheriff ’s department station, but were stopped when a row of officers lined up outside.
The splinter group ultimately returned to the larger protest after a helicopter circled overhead and ordered them to disperse.
The sheriff ’s department said in a press release yesterday that they were investigating the incident, adding that the SUVs were beset by “vandals in the crowd” who left one vehicle with “scratches, dents, and a shattered rear window.”
The collision came as tension between cops and the community in the California capital is already bubbling over.
Stephon Clark, 22, was fatally shot in the backyard of his grandmother’s home on March 18 by police investigating a report of a man breaking car windows.