Driver in custody after car rams into crowd following Virginia white nationalist rally

Twitter/@brennanmgilmore(CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.) — One person is dead in Charlottesville, Virginia, after a white nationalist rally and counterprotest turned violent and were called off by police, and later a car plowed into a crowd of demonstrators marching down a street, causing injuries.

Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer tweeted Saturday afternoon that “a life has been lost.”

Video taken earlier in the afternoon show crowds walking down a street as several cars move slowly along the same avenue. Abruptly, a silver or gray vehicle rams into the back of another vehicle, slamming one or more cars ahead of it amid the crowd of protesters. The driver backs up and rapidly flees the scene.

Warning: The video contains graphic images.

It was not immediately clear whether the driver of the vehicle acted intentionally.

Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer tweeted Saturday afternoon that “a life has been lost,” a fact that was later confirmed by the University of Virginia Health System, which reported that 20 patients were brought to UVA Medical Center and that 19 were being “assessed and treated.”

I am heartbroken that a life has been lost here. I urge all people of good will–go home.

— Mike Signer (@MikeSigner) August 12, 2017

Charlottesville has become a flashpoint for white nationalists following a City Council vote in February to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a park formerly called Lee Park.

The park was renamed Emancipation Park in June.

President Donald Trump addressed the situation during remarks Saturday afternoon. He did not specifically address that a death had occurred amid the demonstrations, but denounced the “egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.”

Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.

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