At Least One Person Is Dead And 19 Injured After Violence In Charlottesville
The list of casualties after an alt-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia on Aug. 12 is getting worse. A hospital spokesperson at University of Virginia Medical Center said that the Charlottesville victims include one dead and 19 injured, CBS News reported on Saturday afternoon. The death appears to have come after a car plowed into a crowd of protesters, sending bodies flying and leaving the injured littered around the street.
UPDATE: The victim in Charlottesville has been identified as Heather Heyer, 32, a paralegal who lived in Virginia, according to The New York Daily News. Her childhood friend, Felicia Correa, spoke to the paper on behalf of her family. “She died doing what was right," Correa said, speaking for Heyer's mother.
A GoFundMe page set up by Correa for Heyer's family has collected over $60,000 as of Sunday morning. A note on the page says that the funds will be released to whoever the family chooses to be in charge of Heyer's estate.
EARLIER: Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas said that the victim killed in the incident was a 32-year-old woman, who was killed crossing the street. Thomas said that authorities would not be releasing further information until the woman's next of kin had been notified.
He added that the driver was in custody, and that the incident was being treated as a criminal homicide. He said that a total of 35 people were being treated for injuries, including nine with injuries ranging from life-threatening to minor due to the car crash.
Separately, two people died in a helicopter crash seven miles outside Charlottesville, and Gov. Terry McAuliffe referenced three fatalities at the press conference, according to ABC News. Authorities did not confirm if the helicopter crash was related to the violence around the alt-right rally.
Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer posted a message to Twitter shortly after 3 p.m. ET on Aug. 12, confirming the first death. "I am heartbroken that a life has been lost here," he wrote. "I urge all people of good will — go home."
There are as yet no details about the identity of the person killed or those injured in the crash.
The injuries came after clashes between alt-right demonstrators and counter-protesters at Charlottesville's Emancipation Park, where white nationalists had planned a "Unite the Right" rally to "advocate for white people" and protest the removal of a statue of a Confederate general. An additional 15 injuries from the rally itself have also been reported, according to CBS News.
A graphic video, captured on Periscope and shared to Twitter, shows the terrifying moment when the car slams into the crowd.
The crash happened several hours after the "Unite the Right" rally was broken up by police. "We found a group of resistance," the person filming narrates, as the crowd chants the phrase "our streets" and moves around two motionless cars. A moment later, a third car barrels through the crowd, slamming into people and the cars ahead, sending bodies flying as marchers scream. A moment later, the car goes into reverse and backs away from the scene.
Another angle, from a distance, shows the car accelerating into the crowd.
The driver of the car is in police custody, according to the Associated Press. The driver, a man, has not been identified.
This post will be updated as more information becomes available.
