(Image source from: CNBC.com)
In connection with a white nationalist torchlit march in Charlottesville, Virginia, earlier this year, four members of a militant white supremacist group from California have been arrested, federal authorities said on Tuesday.
The arrests were made after violence broke out when scores of white nationalists descended on Charlottesville to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
The testimony alleges the four men were "among the most violent individuals present in Charlottesville" in August of earlier this year during a torch-lit march on the University of Virginia campus and a bigger rally in downtown the next day. It says photographs and video footage shows they attacked counterprotesters, "which in some cases resulted in serious injuries."
The affidavit alleges that men have as active in "acts of violence" at political rallies in Huntington Beach and Berkeley, California, and other places.
Violence initially broke out on August 11, 2017, as a crowd of white nationalists marched through the University of Virginia campus carrying torches.
The next day, more hostility occurred between white nationalists and counterprotesters during the "Unite the Right" rally.
The crowd was eventually forced to disperse, but a woman was killed when a car prosecutors say was driven by a man fascinated by Adolf Hitler later plowed into a crowd of peaceful counterprotesters.
The death toll increased to three when a state police helicopter that had been monitoring the event crashed, killing two troopers.
The 21-year-old suspected driver James Fields Jr., of Maumee, Ohio, has been charged with federal hate crimes in the death of Heather Heyer, 32. Fields as well face state murder charges. His trial is scheduled to begin on November 26.
The United States President Donald Trump sparked a public outcry after he blamed both sides for the violence on.
The rally was believed to be the sizable assemblage of white nationalists in at least a decade. Before the event began, street fights broke out between white nationalists and counterdemonstrators. The fighting lasted for about an hour in view of police until authorities forced the crowd to scatter.
-Sowmya Sangam
