TWO VIRGINIA POLICE OFFICERS DIE IN HELICOPTER CRASH
by Sharon Rondeau
An individual taken into custody in connection with the vehicular attack has been identified by CNN as 20-year-old James Alex Fields of Maumee, Ohio.
A noon rally was scheduled by a group labeled by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe as “white nationalist” under the mantra of “Unite the Right.” People from opposition groups arrived to counteract them.
As many as 90% of the scheduled protesters were reportedly from outside of Virginia.
McAuliffe declared a state of emergency in the Commonwealth earlier on Saturday, prior to the announcement of any casualties.
It is unclear in each case from video footage who attacked and injured who.
The two police officers died when the helicopter in which they were apparently patrolling the general protest area crashed. No one on the ground was injured.
On Saturday evening, President Donald Trump extended his condolences to the families of the three people who lost their lives.
The nation’s third president, founding father and a former Virginia governor himself, Thomas Jefferson, founded the University of Virginia in 1818.
In response to the violence, both Trump and McAuliffe said that Americans must “come together” after speaking on the telephone. Each made a supportive statement of the other in an attempt to convince those intending violence to reconsider.
