{"id":143,"date":"2017-08-12T18:41:47","date_gmt":"2017-08-12T22:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=143"},"modified":"2018-03-01T10:08:27","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T15:08:27","slug":"man-charged-after-white-nationalist-rally-in-charlottesville-ends-in-deadly-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=143","title":{"rendered":"Man Charged After White Nationalist Rally in Charlottesville Ends in Deadly Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

By\u00a0SHERYL GAY STOLBERG<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>BRIAN M. ROSENTHAL<\/span><\/a><\/span>

\n

Photo<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A car slammed into a group of counterprotesters after a rally by white nationalists on Saturday in Charlottesville, Va. killing at least one and injuring at least 19.<\/span>\u00a0Credit<\/span>Ryan M. Kelly\/The Daily Progress, via Associated Press<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
\n
\n
\n

\u00a0<\/span>Watch in Times Video \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. \u2014 The city of Charlottesville was engulfed by violence on Saturday as white nationalists and counterprotesters clashed in one of the bloodiest fights to date over the removal of Confederate monuments across the South.<\/p>\n

White nationalists had long planned a demonstration over the city\u2019s decision to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee. But the rally quickly exploded into racial taunting, shoving and outright brawling, prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency and the National Guard to join the police in clearing the area.<\/p>\n

Those skirmishes mostly resulted in cuts and bruises. But after the rally at a city park was dispersed, a car bearing Ohio license plates plowed into a crowd near the city\u2019s downtown mall, killing a 32-year-old woman. Some 34 others were injured, at least 19 in the car crash, according to a spokeswoman for the University of Virginia Medical Center.<\/p>\n

Col. Martin Kumer, the superintendent of the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, confirmed Saturday evening that an Ohio man, James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Maumee, had been arrested and charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and failing to stop at the scene of a crash that resulted in a death. But the authorities declined to say publicly that Mr. Fields was the driver of the car that plowed into the crowd.<\/p>\n

Witnesses to the crash said a gray sports car accelerated into a crowd of counterdemonstrators \u2014 who were marching jubilantly near the mall after the white nationalists had left \u2014 and hurled at least two people in the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was probably the scariest thing I\u2019ve ever seen in my life,\u201d said Robert Armengol, who was at the scene reporting for a podcast he hosts with students at the University of Virginia. \u201cAfter that it was pandemonium. The car hit reverse and sped and everybody who was up the street in my direction started running.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

The planned rally was promoted as \u201cUnite the Right\u201d and both its organizers and critics said they expected it to be one of the largest gatherings of white nationalists in recent times, attracting groups like the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis and movement leaders like David Duke and Richard Spencer.<\/p>\n

Many of these groups have felt emboldened since the election of Donald J. Trump as president. Mr. Duke, a former imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, told reporters on Saturday that the protesters were \u201cgoing to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump\u201d to \u201ctake our country back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday afternoon, President Trump, speaking at the start of a veterans\u2019 event at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., addressed what he described as \u201cthe terrible events unfolding in Charlottesville, Virginia.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his comments, President Trump condemned the bloody protests, but he did not specifically criticize the white nationalist rally and its neo-Nazi slogans, blaming \u201chatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been going on for a long time in our country, it\u2019s not Donald Trump, it\u2019s not Barack Obama,\u201d said Mr. Trump, adding that he had been in contact with Virginia officials. After calling for the \u201cswift restoration of law and order,\u201d he offered a plea for unity among Americans of \u201call races, creeds and colors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president came under criticism from some who said he had\u00a0not responded strongly enough against racism<\/a>\u00a0and that he failed to condemn the white nationalist groups by name who were behind the rally.<\/p>\n

Among those displeased with Mr. Trump was the mayor of Charlottesville, Mike Signer. \u201cI do hope that he looks himself in the mirror and thinks very deeply about who he consorted with during his campaign,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Late on Saturday night, the Department of Justice announced that it was opening a civil rights investigation into \u201cthe circumstances of the deadly vehicular incident,\u201d to be conducted by the F.B.I., the United States attorney for the Western District of Virginia, and the department\u2019s Civil Rights Division.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe violence and deaths in Charlottesville strike at the heart of American law and justice,\u201d Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. \u201cWhen such actions arise from racial bigotry and hatred, they betray our core values and cannot be tolerated.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

The turmoil in Charlottesville began with\u00a0a march Friday night<\/a>\u00a0by white nationalists on the campus of the University of Virginia and escalated Saturday morning as demonstrators from both sides gathered in and around the park. Waving Confederate flags, chanting Nazi-era slogans, wearing helmets and carrying shields, the white nationalists converged on the Lee statue inside the park and began chanting phrases like \u201cYou will not replace us\u201d and \u201cJews will not replace us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hundreds of counterprotesters \u2014 religious leaders, Black Lives Matter activists and anti-fascist groups known as \u201cantifa\u201d \u2014 quickly surrounded the park, singing spirituals, chanting and carrying their own signs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The morning started peacefully, with the white nationalists gathering in McIntire Park, outside downtown, and the counterdemonstrators \u2014 including Cornel R. West, the Harvard University professor and political activist \u2014 gathering at the First Baptist Church, a historically African-American church here. Professor West, who addressed the group at a sunrise prayer service, said he had come \u201cbearing witness to love and justice in the face of white supremacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

At McIntire Park, the white nationalists waved Confederate flags and other banners. One of the participants, who gave his name only as Ted because he said he might want to run for political office some day, said he was from Missouri, and added, \u201cI\u2019m tired of seeing white people pushed around.\u201d<\/p>\n

But by 11 a.m., after both sides had made their way to Emancipation Park, the scene had exploded into taunting, shoving and outright brawling.\u00a0Three people were arrested<\/a>\u00a0in connection with the skirmishes.<\/p>\n

Barricades encircling the park and separating the two sides began to come down, and the police temporarily retreated. People were seen clubbing one another in the streets, and pepper spray filled the air. One of the white nationalists left the park bleeding, his head wrapped in gauze.<\/p>\n

Declaring the gathering an unlawful assembly, the police had cleared the area before noon, and the Virginia National Guard arrived as officers began arresting some who remained. But fears lingered that the altercation would start again nearby, as demonstrators dispersed in smaller groups.<\/p>\n

Within an hour, politicians, including Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, and the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, a Republican, had condemned the violence.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

The first public response from the White House came from the first lady, Melania Trump, who\u00a0wrote on Twitter<\/a>: \u201cOur country encourages freedom of speech, but let\u2019s communicate w\/o hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former President Barack Obama responded to the violence on Twitter with a quote from Nelson Mandela: \u201cNo one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion… People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love..\u201d<\/p>\n

After the rally was dispersed, its organizer, Jason Kessler, who calls himself a \u201cwhite advocate,\u201d complained in an interview that his group had been \u201cforced into a very chaotic situation.\u201d He added, \u201cThe police were supposed to be there protecting us and they stood down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Mr. Kessler and Richard Spencer, a prominent white nationalist who was to speak on Saturday, are graduates of the University of Virginia. In an\u00a0online video,<\/a>\u00a0titled \u201ca message to Charlottesville,\u2019\u2019 Mr. Spencer vowed to return to the college town.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think that we\u2019re going to back down to this kind of behavior to you and your little provincial town? No,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cWe are going to make Charlottesville the center of the universe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later in the day, a Virginia State Police helicopter crashed near a golf course and burst into flames. The pilot, Lt. H. Jay Cullen, 48, of Midlothian, Va., and Berke M. M. Bates, 40, a trooper-pilot of Quinton, Va., died at the scene. Their Bell 407 helicopter was assisting with the situation in Charlottesville, the Virginia State Police said.<\/p>\n

The violence in Charlottesville was the latest development in a series of tense dramas unfolding across the United States over plans to remove statues and other historical markers of the Confederacy. The battles have been intensified by the election of Mr. Trump, who enjoys fervent support from white nationalists.<\/p>\n

In New Orleans,\u00a0tempers flared this spring<\/a>\u00a0when four Confederate-era monuments were taken down. Hundreds of far-right and liberal protesters squared off, with occasional bouts of violence, under another statue of Robert E. Lee. There were fisticuffs and a lot of shouting, but nothing like the violence seen in Charlottesville.<\/p>\n

In St. Louis,\u00a0workers removed<\/a>\u00a0a confederate monument from Forest Park in June, ending a drawn-out battle over its fate. In\u00a0Frederick, Md.<\/a>, a bust of Roger B. Taney, the chief justice of the United States who wrote the notorious 1857\u00a0Dred Scott decision<\/a>\u00a0denying blacks citizenship, was removed in May from its spot near City Hall.<\/p>\n

Here in Charlottesville, Saturday\u2019s protest was the culmination of a year and a half of debate over the Lee statue. A movement to withdraw it began when an African-American high school student here started a petition. The City Council voted 3 to 2 in April to sell it, but a judge issued an injunction temporarily stopping the move.<\/p>\n

The city had been bracing for a sea of demonstrators, and on Friday night,\u00a0hundreds of them<\/a>, carrying lit torches, marched on the picturesque grounds of the University of Virginia, founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump\u201d to \u201ctake our country back,\u201d said Mr. Duke, a former imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Many of the white nationalist protesters carried campaign signs for Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n

University officials said one person was arrested and charged Friday night with assault and disorderly conduct, and several others were injured. Among those hurt was a university police officer injured while making the arrest, the school said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Teresa A. Sullivan, the president of the university,\u00a0strongly condemned<\/a>\u00a0the Friday demonstration in a statement, calling it \u201cdisturbing and unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, officials allowed the Saturday protest to go on \u2014 until the injuries began piling up.<\/p>\n

Charlottesville declared a state of emergency around 11 a.m., citing an \u201cimminent threat of civil disturbance, unrest, potential injury to persons, and destruction of public and personal property.\u201d<\/p>\n

Governor McAuliffe\u00a0followed with his own declaration<\/a>\u00a0an hour later.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is now clear that public safety cannot be safeguarded without additional powers, and that the mostly-out-of-state protesters have come to Virginia to endanger our citizens and property,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cI am disgusted by the hatred, bigotry and violence these protesters have brought to our state.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Republican candidate for governor in Virginia, Ed Gillespie, issued his own statement denouncing the protests as \u201cvile hate\u201d that has \u201cno place in our Commonwealth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Ryan agreed. \u201cThe views fueling the spectacle in Charlottesville are repugnant,\u201d\u00a0he said on Twitter<\/a>. \u201cLet it only serve to unite Americans against this kind of vile bigotry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
Correction: August 12, 2017\u00a0<\/strong>
\nAn earlier version of this article misstated the age of a man arrested after the Charlottesville rally. James Alex Fields Jr. is 20, not 32.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n