HollyMatkinSacramento, CA – Dashcam footage that showed a Sacramento County Sheriff Department (SCSD) patrol vehicle as it collided with a protester was shown at a department press conference on Monday (video below).
It also turns out that this isn’t the protester’s first physical confrontation with police. She lost a fight with officers a few months ago at a city council meeting. That encounter was also captured on video (below.)
On Saturday night, a riotous crowd converged on an intersection in South Sacramento, in the neighborhood where Stephon Clark was shot, The Sacramento Bee reported.
Clark, a 22-year-old burglar, was fatally shot by police on Mar. 18 after he shattered the window of an elderly man’s home, then pointed an object towards officers that was later determined to be a cell phone.
One group of protesters surrounded the deputies’ vehicles, and began pounding on them. Some also threw eggs at the patrol cars.
According to SCSD Sergeant Shaun Hampton, the hoard yelled at the deputies, and kicked their vehicles.
Police said that “vandals in the crowd” also caused “scratches, dents, and a shattered rear window” to a sheriff’s vehicle during the attack.
Two deputies, who were handling assignments unrelated to the protest, were traveling back to the station at approximately 8:40 p.m., when they came upon the human blockade in the roadway, Sheriff Scott Jones said during a Monday press conference.
The video showed the crowd as they surrounded the vehicles, and screamed at the deputies inside.
The deputy in the first vehicle ordered the crowd to “back away” and “get away” at least eight times, and he was eventually able to pass, KCRA reported.
As the group moved away from the first SCSD vehicle, however, they began to swarm the second patrol vehicle trailing behind.
The video showed 61-year-old Wanda Cleveland as she moved directly in the path of the second unit with a sign in her hand.
“The female protester chose this moment to bring her protest in between the vehicles,” Sheriff Jones said, according to the Tri-City Herald.
While the patrol SUV inched forward, the woman scurried towards the passenger side of the bumper, and was struck by the slow-moving vehicle.
“There is a high likelihood that he didn’t even know that he collided with that protester,” Sheriff Jones said.
Both vehicles left the scene, and Cleveland was treated and released at a local hospital for minor injuries.
Her attorney, Mark Reichel, disagreed with the sheriff, and said that it was “not possible” that the deputy failed to notice her, KXTL reported.
“It appears from all evidence that he hit her intentionally,” Reichel alleged. “He drove away from an injured woman intentionally.”
The California Highway Patrol (CHP) is leading the ongoing investigation.
This was not Cleveland’s first interaction with Sacramento law enforcement, KCRA reported.
In October of 2015, she was arrested during a city council meeting, after she and another woman became combative while pushing for a minimum wage increase.
News footage of that incident showed the woman striking officers, who ultimately forced her from the public hall.
You can see the footage of the city hall fight after the footage of her getting hit by the car below: