FILE – In this Aug. 11, 2017, file photo, multiple white nationalist groups march with torches through the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, Va. Multiple arrests have been made in connection with a white nationalist torch-lit march and rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year, federal authorities said Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2018. (Mykal McEldowney/The Indianapolis Star via AP, File)
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Four members of a militant white supremacist group from California have been arrested on charges they traveled to Virginia last year to incite a riot and attack counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally that turned deadly, court documents unsealed Tuesday say.
The defendants — Benjamin Drake Daley, Michael Paul Miselis, Thomas Walter Gillen and Cole Evan White — are part of the Rise Above Movement, which espouses anti-Semitic views and meets regularly in public parks to train in boxing and other fighting techniques, according to an affidavit.
The affidavit alleges that the four men were “among the most violent individuals present in Charlottesville” on Aug. 11 and 12 of last year. It says photos and video footage shows they attacked counterprotesters, “which in some cases resulted in serious injuries.”
The men have also taken part in “acts of violence” at political rallies in Huntington Beach and Berkeley, California, and other places, the affidavit alleges.
The four have been arrested and are awaiting their initial hearings, according to another court filing in the case. It wasn’t immediately clear if they have attorneys who could comment on their behalf.
Federal prosecutors said earlier in the day that multiple arrests had been made in connection with the events of Aug. 11 and 12 last year in Virginia. U.S. Attorney Thomas Cullen scheduled a news conference for Tuesday afternoon to announce the charges.
The arrests come more than a year after hundreds of white nationalists descended on Charlottesville in part to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Clashes first erupted on Aug. 11, 2017, as a crowd of white nationalists marching through the University of Virginia campus carrying torches and chanting racist slogans encountered a small group of counterprotesters.
The following day, more violence broke out between counterprotesters and attendees of the “Unite the Right” rally, which was believed to be the largest gathering of white nationalists in at least a decade. Street fighting exploded before the event could begin as scheduled and went on for nearly an hour in view of police until authorities forced the crowd to disperse.
Later, a woman was killed when a car prosecutors say was driven by a man fascinated by Adolf Hitler plowed into a crowd of peaceful counterprotesters. The death toll rose to three when a state police helicopter that had been monitoring the event crashed, killing two troopers.
The suspected driver, 21-year-old James Fields Jr., of Maumee, Ohio, has been charged with federal hate crimes in the death of Heather Heyer, 32. Fields also faces state murder charges; his trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 26.
President Donald Trump sparked a public outcry after he blamed both sides for the violence.
An independent report released three months later found serious police and government failures in responding to the mayhem.