10 stabbed, beaten at white nationalist rally in California
Published 10:14 am Monday, June 27, 2016
SAN FRANCISCO — Ten people suffered stab wounds and other injuries on Sunday after members of a white nationalist group that planned to rally outside the California state Capitol building in Sacramento clashed with a larger group of counter protesters, authorities said.
The fight broke out when about 30 members of the Traditionalist Worker Party gathering to rally around noon Sunday were met by about 400 counter-protesters, California Highway Patrol Officer George Granada said.
As people tried to leave the area, smaller fights broke out, Granada said.
Of the injured, two were taken to the hospital with critical stab wounds, but they were expected to survive, officials said.
Police were investigating two assaults that happened outside the Capitol grounds, but no arrests have been made, the Sacramento Police Department said in a statement.
The Capitol was on lockdown until protesters cleared the area.
Videos from the melee posted on social media showed mounted police officers dispersing a group of mostly young people, some with their faces covered, while some throw stones toward a man holding a stick and being shielded by police officers in riot gear.
A KCRA-TV reporter and his cameraman were caught in an altercation with protesters who shouted “no cameras” as they tried to grab their equipment and shove them away from the crowd.
Sacramento Fire Department spokesman Chris Harvey said nine men and one woman, ranging from 19 to 58 years old, were treated for stab wounds, cuts, scrapes and bruises.
“There was a large number of people carrying sticks and rushing to either get into the melee or see what was going on,” Harvey said.