One of the demonstration’s organizers, Jennifer Rourke — a board member of The Womxn Project and candidate for a State Senate District 29 seat in Warwick — rushed over to try to defuse the situation. “This (conflict) is not what this is about,” Rourke, who is also a co-founder of the R.I. Political Cooperative, told the Globe on Saturday morning.
Video from the demonstration shows Rourke holding her hands up and repeatedly asking people, in English and Spanish, to move away. She asked Mello to leave, and she said he agreed.
The bald man in the middle is the one who suddenly began shouting on the state house steps was here the whole time. More than midway through he moved toward the speaker and was immediately surrounded by crowd members. Some say they were punched. #RoeVsWade pic.twitter.com/xqLkgJSy4n
— Carlos R. Munoz 📰 (@ReadCarlos) June 25, 2022
But as Mello walked up the stairs to the first platform at the State House steps, waiving his cell phone as he continued live stream, he was assaulted by an unidentified man in a green- and white-striped jacket.
“I screamed ‘Don’t hit him,’” Rourke said in a phone interview Saturday morning. Then, video shows, someone struck her in the face. “I was hit multiple times,” she said.
Rourke identified the person who attacked her as off-duty Providence police officer Jeann Lugo, her Republican opponent for the State Senate District 29 seat. In response to questions from the Globe, Lugo on Saturday did not deny punching Rourke.
“As an officer that swore to protect and serve our communities, I, unfortunately, saw myself in a situation that no individual should see themselves in,” he said in an email to the Globe. “I stepped in to protect someone that a group of agitators was attacking.”
“At this moment, there’s a pending internal investigation, and as the facts of the incident come to light, I request that my family and I have privacy,” he said.
“The PPD is criminally investigating the off duty behavior of a Providence Police Officer last evening at a protest where a female was assaulted,” Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven M. Paré tweeted from the official Providence Public Safety account. “The Officer was placed on administrative leave with pay this morning pending a criminal investigation and administrative review. SMP”
The PPD is criminally investigating the off duty behavior of a Providence Police Officer last evening at a protest where a female was assaulted. The Officer was placed on adminstrative leave with pay this morning pending a criminal investigation and adminstrative review. SMP
— Pvd Public Safety (@PvdPublicSafety) June 25, 2022
“The officer has served on the department for three years and was placed on administrative leave with pay this morning, pending a criminal investigation and administrative review,” Providence Police Spokesperson Lindsay Lague confirmed Saturday.
Under the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights, known as LEOBOR, being placed on paid administrative leave is the normal procedure when an officer commits a misdemeanor, such as assault.
Immediately after the assault, Rourke did not appear to be injured but was visibly upset.
“I looked him in his face,” Rourke told the Globe on Saturday. “I’ve never even had a conversation with him [in person]. I just know him from social media.”
“Why attack me? I was the one trying to prevent this. It’s disappointing,” she said in the phone interview. “I am a survivor of domestic violence and I just froze.”
Rourke said her husband, who was home with their children at the time of the rally, is a retired Charlottesville, Virginia, police officer. “He said, ‘That’s not how we handle situations like that. On or off duty,’” Rourke said.
Rourke said she filed a police report Friday night, and is pressing charges. On Saturday, she said, Rhode Island State Police called her and asked her to come in to answer questions.
Rhode Island State Police Lieutenant Peter Filuminia told the Globe late Friday night that two other people, one male and one female, were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct. They were not involved in the altercation between Rourke and Lugo. They will be arraigned Saturday.
“It’s frustrating when you are trying to have something peaceful and it turns into something like that,” Rourke said on Saturday. “I’ve seen things happen across the country and I never thought that would happen here, or to me.”
The rally, which lasted until about 10 p.m. and was attended by thousands of people, was otherwise peaceful. Here’s what it was like.
Alexa Gagosz can be reached at alexa.gagosz@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz.
