SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A 61-year-old 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 Saturday night, part of dayslong 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 cruiser and surrounds it. “When people are occupied, resistance is justified” the crowd chants.

The cruiser’s lights flash and the siren blares. Another cruiser pulls up to behind in an apparent move to back up the first vehicle.

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“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 arrive about seven minutes later to load the woman onto a stretcher and take her to an ambulance.

Before the accident, Cleveland, a vocal activist at Sacramento City Council meetings, recounted how she felt she was unjustly arrested three years ago for allegedly touching a police officer during a tense meeting.


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