A Charlottesville man who was attacked over the weekend by white supremacists has taken to social media to share photos of his wounds.
A Charlottesville man who was savagely attacked over the weekend by a group of white supremacists has taken to social media to share photos of his horrifying wounds.
Deandre Harris, 20, and a group of his friends went to Emancipation Park Saturday to counter-protest white nationalists and other right-wing groups who had descended on the park to protest the removal of the local confederate monuments.
Harris said was pepper sprayed and had racist remarks hurled at him within minutes of his arrival.
He then was brutally attacked inside a parking garage by a group of white supremacists.
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«I was chased and beat with metal poles, » Harris wrote on a GoFundMe page set up to help with his medical expenses. «I was knocked unconscious repeatedly. Every time I went to stand up I was knocked back down.»
Video posted on Twitter shows the aspiring hip-hop artist desperately trying to escape his attackers as they repeatedly strike him with poles and other objects.
One photo, which Harris shared on his GoFundMe page, shows blood dripping down his face from a gash on his head.
Harris said the attack happened right next to the Charlottesville Police Department, but no officer helped him. He said his friends noticed the brutal beating, so they stepped in and pulled him to safety.
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«They could have killed my son, » his mother, Felicia Harris, told News 3 . «That blow to his head could have taken his life.»
Harris was rushed to Martha Jefferson Hospital and received eight staples in his head, he told The Root .
The Instructional Assistant for a local high school’s special education program also said he had a concussion, a broken wrist and chipped tooth.
Harris told The Root that he felt it was «really crazy» that white nationalists, members of the KKK and neo-Nazis were allowed to protest.
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«I understand everyone is entitled to their freedom of speech, but the government and the mayor made a bad business move, » he said. «It’s only caused havoc in your own city.
«It’s crazier that people have the hate in their heart to want to kill people, » he added.
