White Supremacist rally in Virgina kills three; POTUS refuses to blame violence on Alt-Right demonstrators
A woman receives first aid after a man drove his car into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, VA. Pics/AFP
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Hundreds of white supremacists clashed with counter demonstrators as a car rammed into the crowd and a police helicopter crashed, killing at least three people and injuring 19 others in the US state of Virginia.
Protesters march on the streets of Oakland in response to a series of violent clashes that erupted at Charlottesville
A 32-year-old woman died after the car plowed into a group of people peacefully protesting at the rally on Saturday, while two police officers were killed following the helicopter crash near the protest site in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Deceased cops Virginia State Police show Trooper-Pilot Berke MM Bates, and Lt. H. Jay Cullen (right) James Alex Fields, Jr, suspected of ploughing into protesters
James Alex Fields, Jr, the 20-year-old driver of the car has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder. The cause of the crash remains under investigation at this time, the police said in a statement. The violence broke out ahead of the 'Unite the Right' rally by white supremacists protesting against the planned removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee from a park in the college town of Charlottesville, 256 kilometres from Virginia.
Following the clashes, a state of emergency was declared by the authorities, and police and security forces were deployed in riot gears.
President Donald Trump described this a terrible event. He said he spoke to Virginia Governor Terry Mcauliffe. "We agree that the hate and the division must stop, and must stop right now," he said as hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members gathered in Charlottesville, which they described as one of their biggest rally in decades.