Two Arrests Of Charlottesville Attackers–But Questions Linger

By now, we are well aware of 32-year-old Heather Heyer’s death at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12.

But there were other violent skirmishes that day that have received far less media coverage, specifically the attack of Deandre Harris, 20, whom video coverage shows six men cornering and beating in a parking lot mere yards from police headquarters. 

Mr. Harris survived with a broken wrist and head trauma requiring ten staples.

Now two men featured in the video chronicling Harris’s assault have been arrested, and police are still searching for a third.

Eighteen-year-old Daniel P. Borden was charged with malicious wounding in Cincinnati, Ohio Friday.

Daniel P. Borden. Credit: Hamilton County Justice Center

Saturday, police arrested Richard W. Preston, 52, a imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, for discharging a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school. He was captured on video shooting at the ground near Harris’s friend, counter-protester Corey Long.

About the incident, Long said:

“At first it was peaceful protest until someone pointed a gun at my head. Then the same person pointed it at my foot and shot the ground.”

Police have also released a wanted poster for Alex Michael Ramos, 33, of Marietta, Georgia, for the same offense as Borden.

Malicious wounding carries a sentence of up to five years in prison. Discharging a firearm within 1,000 of a school is given two to ten years.

 

Alex Michael Ramos. Credit: Charlottesville Police Dept.

The attack on Harris and Long started after white supremacists attempted to impale one of Harris’s friends with a flagpole, which Mr. Harris tried to deflect. Over a dozen men then rushed Harris, forcing him to the ground.

The Virginia American Civil Liberties union (ACLU) submitted the video documenting this to the FBI and local law enforcement.

Although their arrest is good news, questions remain over how a planned protest supporting Confederate monuments that was supposed to provide ample police protection was able to get to this point.

Corey Long commented:

“The cops were protecting the Nazis, instead of the people who live in the city. The cops basically just stood in their line and looked at the chaos. The cops were not protecting the people of Charlottesville. They were protecting the outsiders…They shouldn’t have allowed it. They wouldn’t even allow [rapper] Waka Flocka to come down. You wouldn’t let a rap artist come down, but you allow the Nazis? There’s something wrong with this picture.”

 Police request anyone with knowledge of Alex Michael Ramos’s location to call 434-970-3280.

Image credit: Zach D. Roberts, via Associated Press

Ted Millar is writer and teacher. His work has been featured in myriad literary journals, including Better Than Starbucks, The Broke Bohemian, Straight Forward Poetry, Caesura, Circle Show, Cactus Heart, Third Wednesday, and The Voices Project. He is also a contributor to The Left Place blog on Substack, and Medium.