A black man who was photographed using an improvised flame thrower against white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia this past summer was arrested on Friday.
Corey Long, 23, of Culpeper, Virginia, faces charges of assault and battery and disorderly conduct.
An Associated Press photographer snapped a picture of Long just as he used a lighted spray can toward a group of white supremacists, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Soon afterward, the photograph went viral.
Charlottesville police say that the disorderly conduct charge applies to Long’s use of the flame thrower.
A black man who was photographed using an improvised flame thrower against white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia this past summer was arrested on Friday
Corey Long, 23, of Culpeper, Virginia, faces charges of assault and battery and disorderly conduct
Long (seen left with an unidentified person in this undated file photo) was released Friday on an unsecured bond after he appeared before a magistrate. He said he was acting in self-defense after an armed white protester fired a gun that nearly left him wounded in the foot
The assault and battery charge is related to a separate altercation that took place during the rally.
Long was released Friday on an unsecured bond after he appeared before a magistrate.
He said he was acting in self-defense after an armed white protester fired a gun that nearly left him wounded in the foot.
‘At first it was peaceful protest,’ said Long.
The alleged incidents occurred during a number of clashes between alt-right white supremacists and anti-racist counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12
The alt-right gathered in Charlottesville that weekend to protest plans by the city to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee
‘Until someone pointed a gun at my head. Then the same person pointed it at my foot and shot the ground.’
Long said that moments earlier a white supremacist threw the spray can at him. He then took a light to the spray paint and turned it into a flame thrower, according to The Root.
He claims that he used the flame thrower to protect another counter protester, an elderly white man, who is seen in the photo standing next to him.
Long says he was shielding the man who became fearful amidst the chaos, something he claims the police failed to do.
‘The cops were protecting the Nazis, instead of the people who live in the city,’ Long said.
‘The cops basically just stood in their line and looked at the chaos. The cops were not protecting the people of Charlottesville. They were protecting the outsiders.’
Long is being represented by an attorney who has been accused of extremism.
Malik Zulu Shabazz, the national president of Black Lawyers for Justice and the former head of the New Black Panther Party, has been described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a ‘racist black nationalist.’
Long is the second black counter demonstrator to be arrested. DeAndre Harris (pictured), a 20-year-old black man who was beaten at a white nationalist rally in August, turned himself into police Thursday morning
On his Facebook page, Long shared a post written by Shabazz which reads: ‘Getting arrested is no dishonor if you are standing up against hatred and injustice.
‘Getting shot while on the battlefield is sometimes a necessary reality if you are a true soldier operating against enemy fire in enemy territory.’
He is the second black counterprotester to be arrested in the past two days for alleged crimes committed during the white nationalist rally on August 12.
Charlottesville police said in a statement that 20-year-old DeAndre Harris turned himself in Thursday morning and was served a warrant charging him with unlawful wounding.
The statement says Harris was taken before a magistrate and released on an unsecured bond.
Photos and video that were widely shared online showed Harris being beaten by a group of men inside a parking garage. In addition to Harris, three men have been charged in the attack.
Harris’ attorney has said that Harris did nothing wrong and that authorities don’t have probable cause to charge him.
The Charlottesville Police Department issued a statement on Monday, saying that the unnamed victim went to the magistrate’s office and complained of being beaten by Harris in the brawl.
The magistrate’s office called the police department to confirm the facts, and they then issued the warrant.
Harris’ attorney, S. Lee Merritt, told the Washington Post that the warrant is ‘clearly retaliatory’.
He described the victim as a member of a white supremacist group and maintained that his client did not instigate the fight.
The attack was caught on video and by photographers. Harris is seen on the ground as multiple white men attack. An arrest warrant was released after a victim complained that Harris had attacked him in the brawl
Pictures of Harris’ bloodied face went viral after the march in August
Merritt said it was ‘highly unusual’ for a victim to go to the magistrate instead of the police, suggesting he tried and failed to convince cops to arrest Harris first. The police don’t have sufficient probable cause to charge Harris, his lawyer said.
The alleged incidents occurred during a number of clashes between alt-right white supremacists and anti-racist counterprotesters.
The alt-right gathered in Charlottesville to protest plans by the city to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
One woman, Heather Heyer, 32, died after she and over a dozen others were rammed into by a suspected neo-Nazi who drive his car into a crowd.
President Donald Trump ignited an uproar when he later said that ‘both sides’ deserved blame for the rioting and that there were ‘fine people’ among the alt-right protesters.