CHP Investigating Injury Collision Involving Sacramento Deputy
SACRAMENTO (CBS SF) -- Tensions continued to rise Sunday evening in the wake of an incident where a protester was injured after being struck by a Sacramento County Sheriff's Department vehicle Saturday night.
An investigation into Sacramento Police Department's role in the shooting death of Stephon Clark. Now the Sacramento Sheriff's Department is under scrutiny over the Saturday incident, with the CHP is investigating what happened.
Video of the collision shows a crowd converge on a sheriff's vehicle before the deputy steps on the gas, striking one female protesters,.
The group was gathered in the street in the latest demonstration to denounce the killing of Stephon Clark by Sacramento police two weeks ago.
At first, demonstrators are walking alongside deputies' vehicles. Then, as the cell phone video shows, some decide to close in on one of the sheriffs deputy's cars.
After a deputy makes several announcements on the loudspeaker to step back from the vehicle and give him room, a protester named Wanda Cleveland walks in front of the car and gets knocked to the ground.
"The woman was walking in between the two vehicles, stopped in front of the deputy's vehicle, put up her hand in a stop sign and the vehicle accelerated-- accelerated very fast -- and struck her violently," said Guy Danilowitz with the National Lawyers Guild, who was present during the protest. "She fell to the ground and the deputies then sped off."
Cleveland was hospitalized with bruises on her head and arm.
While she didn't want to talk to our CBS affiliate, she told a Sacramento Bee reporter, "He never even stopped. It was a hit and run. If I did that I'd be charged. It's disregard for human life."
The Sacramento Sheriff's Department released a statement that said, "As protesters approached both of the marked vehicles, they began yelling while pounding and kicking the vehicles' exterior. A collision occurred while the patrol vehicle was traveling at slow speeds."
The National Lawyers Guild -- which observed the protest firsthand and a member of which shot video of the incident -- said in a statement Sunday night that the Sheriff's department is being "dishonest and misleading" when it says the car was moving slowly. The Guild said the vehicle "accelerated rapidly" as it hit Cleveland.
