CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia: A car plowed into a crowd of people peacefully protesting a white nationalist rally Saturday in a Virginia college town, killing one person, hurting dozens more and ratcheting up tension in an increasingly violent confrontation.
A helicopter crash that killed the pilot and a passenger later in the afternoon outside Charlottesville also was linked to the rally by State Police, though officials did not elaborate on how the crash was connected.
The chaos boiled over at what is believed to be the largest group of white nationalists to come together in a decade: the governor declared a state of emergency, police dressed in riot gear ordered people out and helicopters circled overhead. The group had gathered to protest plans to remove a statue of the Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, and others who arrived to protest the racism.
Matt Korbon, a 22-year-old University of Virginia student, said several hundred counter-protesters were marching when 鈥渟uddenly there was just this tire screeching sound.鈥� A silver Dodge Challenger smashed into another car, then backed up, barreling through 鈥渁 sea of people.鈥�
The impact hurled people into the air. Those left standing scattered, screaming and running for safety in different directions.
The driver was later arrested, authorities said.
The turbulence began Friday night, when the white nationalists carried torches though the university campus in what they billed as a 鈥減ro-white鈥� demonstration. It quickly spiraled into violence Saturday morning. Hundreds of people threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays. One person was arrested in connection.
President Donald Trump condemned 鈥渋n the strongest possible terms鈥� what he called an 鈥渆gregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides鈥� after the clashes. He called for 鈥渁 swift restoration of law and order and the protection of innocent lives.鈥�
Trump says he鈥檚 spoken with the governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, and 鈥渨e agreed that the hate and the division must stop and must stop right now.鈥�
But some of the white nationalists cited Trump鈥檚 victory as validation for their beliefs, and Trump鈥檚 critics pointed to the president鈥檚 racially tinged rhetoric as exploiting the nation鈥檚 festering racial tension.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson noted that Trump for years publicly questioned President Barack Obama鈥檚 citizenship.
鈥淲e are in a very dangerous place right now,鈥� he said.
Right-wing blogger Jason Kessler had called for what he termed a 鈥減ro-white鈥� rally in Charlottesville. White nationalists and their opponents promoted the event for weeks.
Oren Segal, who directs the Anti-Defamation League鈥檚 Center on Extremism, said multiple white power groups gathered in Charlottesville, including members of neo-Nazi organizations, racist skinhead groups and Ku Klux Klan factions.
The white nationalist organizations Vanguard America and Identity Evropa; the Southern nationalist League of the South; the National Socialist Movement; the Traditionalist Workers Party; and the Fraternal Order of Alt Knights also were on hand, he said, along with several groups with a smaller presence.
On the other side, anti-fascist demonstrators also gathered in Charlottesville, but they generally aren鈥檛 organized like white nationalist factions, said Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Many others were just locals caught in the fray.
Colleen Cook, 26, stood on a curb shouting at the rally attendees to go home.
Cook, a teacher who attended the University of Virginia, said she sent her son, who is black, out of town for the weekend.
鈥淭his isn鈥檛 how he should have to grow up,鈥� she said.
Cliff Erickson leaned against a fence and took in the scene. He said he thinks removing the statue amounts to erasing history and said the 鈥渃ounter-protesters are crazier than the alt-right.鈥�
鈥淏oth sides are hoping for a confrontation,鈥� he said.
It鈥檚 the latest confrontation in Charlottesville since the city about 100 miles outside of Washington, D.C., voted earlier this year to remove a statue of Lee.
In May, a torch-wielding group that included prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer gathered around the statue for a nighttime protest, and in July, about 50 members of a North Carolina-based KKK group traveled there for a rally, where they were met by hundreds of counter-protesters.
Kessler said this week that the rally is partly about the removal of Confederate symbols but also about free speech and 鈥渁dvocating for white people.鈥�
鈥淭his is about an anti-white climate within the Western world and the need for white people to have advocacy like other groups do,鈥� he said in an interview.
Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer said he was disgusted that the white nationalists had come to his town and blamed Trump for inflaming racial prejudices.
鈥淚鈥檓 not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what you鈥檙e seeing in American today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president,鈥� he said.
Charlottesville, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, is a liberal-leaning city that鈥檚 home to the flagship University of Virginia and Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.
The statue鈥檚 removal is part of a broader city effort to change the way Charlottesville鈥檚 history of race is told in public spaces. The city has also renamed Lee Park, where the statue stands, and Jackson Park, named for Confederate General Thomas 鈥淪tonewall鈥� Jackson. They鈥檙e now called Emancipation Park and Justice Park, respectively.
For now, the Lee statue remains. A group called the Monument Fund filed a lawsuit arguing that removing the statue would violate a state law governing war memorials. A judge has agreed to temporarily block the city from removing the statue for six months.