Charlottesville Protest

It was 5 years ago

August 11-12 2017

Charlottesville VA

Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal, was killed at the August 2017 "Unite the Right" rally when a man drove his vehicle into a crowd of counterprotesters. More than two dozen people were injured. White nationalists, neo-Nazis and other groups opposed to the city's decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee had descended on the city for a day of violent clashes.

The killer, James A. Fields Jr., was sentenced to life in prison in a federal hate crimes case.

I myself was unaware of a beating earlier in the morning

Twenty-year-old DeAndre Harris, a former special education instruction assistant from Charlottesville, was beaten in a parking garage in an assault that was captured by photographs and video footage. The footage showed a group of six men beating Harris with poles, a metal pipe, and wooden slabs as Harris attempted to get off the ground. He received a head laceration requiring stitches, a concussion, a knee injury, a fractured wrist, and a spinal injury.The attack was investigated by Charlottesville police, with help from the Virginia State Police and the FBI. Four men were arrested and charged with malicious wounding, a felony, in connection with the attack on Harris.