Video shows Charlottesville protester opening fire on black counter-protester
The Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union obtained video of a white nationalist protester firing his handgun in the direction of a black counter-protester in Charlottesville, Virginia, two weeks ago.
The video was first published by the New York Times, which obtained it from the ACLU. The organization's director of strategic communications, Bill Farrar, tells CBS News it was shot by "an ACLU-VA representative" whose name was withheld over safety concerns.
The ACLU said they forwarded the video to the FBI and the Charlottesville Police Department. "We turned the video over to law enforcement agencies investigating civil rights violations and other criminal acts committed before and during the rally and after it was dispersed," the ACLU said in a statement.
The Times reported that police took a suspect in the shooting into custody on Saturday.
The man, wearing a bulletproof vest, appeared to shoot a bullet on the ground in the direction of a black man who was seen in another photo wielding a lighted aerosol while facing off a against white nationalist demonstrator brandishing a flagpole at the entrance to Lee Park during the August 12 "Unite the Right" rally.
Violence at the rally left one woman dead and 19 others injured, and many have criticized the lack of response from local and federal law enforcement.
Brian McLaren, a well-known religious leader who attended the protests, told CBS News that police "hung back quite a distance" away from the "center of the action" while fights broke out, pepper-spray flew and gas canisters were thrown by protesters.
