A male Rhode Island police officer on duty running for the state Senate attacked his female political opponent at an abortion rights rally, she said.
Providence Police said Saturday that it has placed officer, Jeann Lugo, on paid administrative leave as it conducts a criminal investigation into Friday night’s alleged assault, which was captured on video .
Courteous Bill Bartholomew – The Bartholomewtown Podcast
Lugo, who is running for Senate District 29 as a Republican, dropped out of the race Saturday afternoon. “I will not be running for any office this fall,” he wrote on Twitter, before temporarily deactivating his account.
Jen Rourke, a progressive running for the same seat who identifies herself as a reproductive rights organizer, said that Lugo “violently attacked me” after her speech at the rally outside the state building in Providence after Supreme Court ruling overturns Roe v. Wade . case.
“This is something a black woman runs for. I won’t give up,” Rourke wrote in a tweet that included a video of the incident.
The five-second clip, made by Bill Bartholomew, a local journalist who runs The Bartholomewtown The podcast, which appears to show a man throwing two punches to a woman’s head, at least one of which connects to its target.
Rourke went to a hospital in Kent, Rhode Island, on Saturday for a CT scan, a campaign spokesman told CNBC.
The Providence Police Department tweeted Saturday that it is “criminally investigating the conduct of an off-duty officer last night during a protest where a woman was assaulted.”
The officer, later clearly identified as Lugo, was placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the review, the department said. A spokesman for the department did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Before dropping out of the state Senate race, Lugo sent a statement to CNBC defending his actions without denying that he punched Rourke.
“As an officer sworn to protect and serve our community, unfortunately, I found myself in a situation no other individual could ever find myself in. I stepped out to protect a someone an incitement group is attacking,” Lugo’s statement said. “At this time, there is an internal investigation pending and as the facts of the incident come to light, I request that my family and I have privacy.”
Bartholomew, in an interview with CNBC, said that about 1,000 people attended the rally to protest the Supreme Court’s ruling Friday morning that removed legal precedent that had protected a woman’s right to an abortion. Federation for nearly 50 years.
Mr. Bartholomew said about 10 members of a right-wing group called the Freedom Fighters also appeared at the event. One of those members, who was filming, seemed to be dominating some members of the crowd. After being asked to leave, the person initially refused, then began to walk away – but when he turned towards the crowd, someone punched him in the face and stepped on him, Bartholomew said. “A scuffle ensued,” said the local journalist, at which point he saw Rourke hit in the face.
Neither Lugo nor other members of the crowd accused of participating in the violence were arrested at the time, Bartholomew said.
Rourke, in a statement to CNBC from her campaign, said that she is “analyzing the situation and the protester will leave once the conflict begins.”
“I was physically assaulted as a result of that,” she said.
“This is what a black woman runs for. All across this country, people like me are threatened or assaulted when they run for office. I will not stop fighting – for reproductive rights, for the people of this country. my district. , or for people like me who want to run for office,” Rourke said.
