Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds’ car hit a Black Lives Matter protester who blocked the vehicle’s path on Tuesday, according to a report.
Jaylen Cavil, an organizer for Des Moines Black Lives Matter, said she stood in front of the governor’s vehicle outside an event in Ackley, waiting for Reynolds to roll down the window to speak to protesters, the Des Moines Registry reported.
The protesters were excluded from the event.
“The SUV the government was driving drove up to me,” Cavil told the store. “I was standing right in front of the car and I stood there. I thought, ‘I’m going to stop here. Surely the governor’s driver is not going to hit me with his car. ”
“This is the governor, my governor, who is supposed to be representing me,” he said. “I’m sure your car is not going to hit me on purpose. I was wrong.”
Cavil then took to Twitter for the bumpy encounter.
“I am physically fine,” he wrote. “Still shocked and trying to process the fact that the governor’s car intentionally hit me today.”
A Reynolds spokesman declined to comment on the incident, but state police later confirmed it in a statement.
“Preliminary police reports at the scene suggest that the protester intentionally stopped in front of the moving vehicle,” said the sergeant. Alex Dinkla told the store. “The protester appeared not to be injured, did not request medical treatment and continued his activities.”
Cavil said an Iowa State Patrol agent approached him after the incident and began yelling at him, calling him “an idiot,” the Registry said.
The activist was among a dozen protesters who showed up at the event to urge the governor to sign an executive order restoring the voting rights of ex-convicts who served their sentences.
Members of the city’s BLM met twice with Reynolds to urge her to sign the order, but she has not promised to sign it, at least not yet.
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