Jason Kessler, the lead organizer of the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia left a press conference under police escort Sunday after he was shouted down and tackled by protesters.
Jason Kessler rushed away from press conference and eventually brought to police station when his car wasn’t reachable pic.twitter.com/JDG1OQ9Hxk
— Brook Silva-Braga (@Brook) August 13, 2017
Kessler scheduled a press conference on Sunday at 2 p.m., but he didn’t seem to have any fans in the audience. Protesters shouted “shame” at him so loudly that it was difficult to hear him speak on the microphone.
Journalist Brook Silva-Braga managed to approach him as he was escorted out by police, and questioned him about the deaths that happened Saturday amid his “Unite the Right” rally.
I asked Jason Kessler if he bears any responsibility for the death in #Charlotteville yesterday pic.twitter.com/QIA9jiuczS
— Brook Silva-Braga (@Brook) August 13, 2017
“I disavow any political violence, and what happened yesterday is tragic,” Kessler said.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, numerous white supremacist groups attended Kessler’s “Unite the Right” rally on Saturday. These included neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, and the “white identitarian” Identity Evropa [sic].
Violence broke out. One incident, which was caught on camera, shows Deandre Harris being attacked by several white men. In another, local woman Heather Heyer was killed and 19 others injured. Police say James Alex Fields Jr. drove a Dodge Challenger into the rear of a sedan, pushing the sedan into a minivan, and knocking the vehicles into a crowd of pedestrians an intersection. He was arrested and charged on multiple counts, including second-degree murder.
[Screengrab via Brook Silva-Braga]
