Black man beaten by white nationalists is charged with assaulting man in Charlottesville melee

LAtimes

a black man who was brutally beaten as he protested a far-right rally in Charlottesville, Va., turned himself in to police Thursday after he was charged with assaulting a white, self-described “Southern nationalist.”

DeAndre Harris' bludgeoning by a group of white nationalists was captured in a video that went viral and spurred accusations that police were not doing enough to bring his attackers to justice.

The arrest of Harris, a 20-year-old hip-hop artist and former teacher’s aide, seemed likely to intensify that criticism. After Charlottesville police served Harris with a warrant at 8:30 a.m. Thursday charging him with “unlawful wounding” — a felony charge that carries up to five years in prison — Harris was taken before a magistrate judge and released on an unsecured bond.

“It’s very upsetting,” said the attorney, S. Lee Merritt, who insists Harris is innocent of the charge. “It seems the judicial system in this case has bent over backwards to further assist in further victimizing DeAndre.”

According to the warrant, Harris is charged with unlawfully stabbing, cutting or wounding Harold Ray Crews with the intent to maim, disfigure, disable or kill. The magistrate judge, Merlyn Goeschl, said she found probable cause to believe Harris committed the offense based on the personal statements of Crews.

Crews is chairman of the North Carolina chapter of the League of the South, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled a neo-Confederate group that advocates for an American society dominated by people of European ancestry.