A Rhode Island police officer accused of beating a woman at an abortion protest while off duty was suspended from his job with pay Saturday while the Providence Police Department conducts a criminal investigation into his actions.

Democratic state Senate candidate Jennifer Rourke, president of the Rhode Island Political Cooperative, tweeted a video of the alleged assault on Saturday morning.

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Jennifer Rourke is 40 years old.

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“I am a reproductive rights organizer and a candidate for State Senate. Last night, after speaking at our Roe rally, my Republican opponent, a police officer, violently attacked me. This is being a Black woman running for office. I will not give up,” he wrote.

The Providence Police Department confirmed Saturday that Jeann Lugo, who was also running for the Republican nomination for the same state Senate seat, was the officer in question. “The PPD is criminally investigating the behavior of an off-duty officer last night during a protest where a woman was assaulted,” the department said Saturday.

“The officer has served for 3 years and was placed on paid administrative leave this morning, pending a criminal investigation and administrative review.” Lugo told the Providence Journal that she “wasn’t going to deny” the beating accusation, but she added that “it all happened so fast.”

“As an officer sworn to protect and serve our communities, I unfortunately found myself in a situation where no individual should be seen,” she said in the email to the Boston Globe. “I stepped in to protect someone who was being attacked by a group of rioters.”

Lugo did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment. Video of the event posted online shows two other people involved in a physical altercation at the protest just before a woman, apparently Rourke, is seen being beaten.

The video does not show what happened between Lugo and Rourke before Rourke was hit. “I am a black woman running for office,” Rourke told the Journal. “There was no need, there was no need for any of this. I’m not giving up.”

In a call with The Associated Press, Rourke said the incident occurred as she was trying to escort a counter-protester who had agreed to leave. As she led the man out of the premises, she said, another physical altercation broke out, at which point Lugo punched her in the face multiple times.

Rourke said that she had never interacted with Lugo before and that she did not know that she would be at the protest. “I am disappointed that he has chosen to use violence in this way. As a police officer, you are trained to de-escalate.

He didn’t do what he was trained to do,” she said. Rourke sought medical attention and received a CT scan on Saturday afternoon. He said that he was fine, but that he was experiencing a lot of tenderness in his face and ringing in his ears.

He said that he had filed charges against Lugo. On Saturday at noon, Lugo tweeted that he was withdrawing from the race. “I will not be running for office this fall,” he said. His Twitter account appeared to have been deactivated shortly after.

Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza tweeted that he had seen the video, calling it “hugely disturbing.” Elorza said he was “limited” in what he could say publicly, but added: “Those responsible will be fully responsible.”

The altercation occurred during a protest Friday outside the Rhode Island State House in Providence that was in response to the United States Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that had granted the constitutional right to abortion.