Sheriff’s cruiser hits woman, then speeds away, video shows

SACRAMENTO >> A 61-yearold woman was struck by a police vehicle as it peeled away from protesters demonstrating against the police killing of Stephon Clark in what was described by the victim and protesters as a hit and run.

Wanda Cleveland, a local activist, was hit in her right leg and taken to a hospital, where she was treated for injuries to her arm and back of the head and released.

Marchers had taken to the street on Saturday night, part of days-long protests in the wake of the killing of Clark, 22, an unarmed black man shot to death by police on March 18 in Sacramento. Demonstrations have been particularly tense since Thursday, when an independent autopsy report concluded Clark was struck eight times, mostly in the back. The incident was recorded on police body cameras.

In a video published by ABC10, a throng of protesters took to busy Florin Road south of downtown chanting slogans, including “Say his name! Stephon Clark!” among moving traffic. A group of what appears to be around two dozen people approaches a Sacramento County Sheriff police cruiser and surrounds it.

The cruiser’s lights flash and the siren blares.

“Back away from my vehicle,” a deputy says four times into a loudspeaker. After a few moments, the first cruiser slowly pulls forward, and a woman emerges from the crowd in between the vehicles, both SUVs.

The second cruiser strikes her and she hits the ground. In a video recorded by public defender and legal observer Guy Danilowitz, the woman’s white sign is lit up by the headlights before impact.

The longer ABC10 video does not show deputies circling back. Fire and rescue personnel firemen arrive about seven minutes later to load the woman, Cleveland, onto a stretcher and take her to an ambulance.