A Virginia man who drove through a group of protesters Sunday admitted to being a Ku Klux Klan leader, numerous sources reported.
Harry Rogers, 36, was charged with attempted malicious wounding, destruction of property and assault and battery after he drove his pickup truck through a group of protesters in the Richmond area Sunday, NBC Washington reported.
In court Monday, Rogers claimed he was the president of the Ku Klux Klan in Virginia and the highest-ranking member not in prison, Henrico County Commonwealth’s attorney Shannon Taylor said according to WTVR.
“The accused, by his own admission and by a cursory glance at social media, is an admitted leader of the Ku Klux Klan and a propagandist for Confederate ideology,” Taylor said in a statement according to WTVR. “We are investigating whether hate crimes charges are appropriate.”
No one was reported injured from the incident. The protests were over the death of George Floyd, making the allegations especially serious, according to Taylor.
The Ku Klux Klan protests on July 8, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Photo by Chet Strange/Getty Images)
“The allegations are incredibly serious … particularly during this time when we are having real conversations about racism, real conversations about social inequalities and the idea of the injustices that are happening,” Taylor said, NBC Washington reported.
Taylor also recalled a similar incident from August 2017, when avowed white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. drove his vehicle into a crowd of counter-protesters at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, killing protester Heather Heyer. (RELATED: Charlottesville Rally Killer Pleads Guilty, Escapes Death Penalty)
Flowers, candles and chalk-written messages surround a photograph of Heather Heyer on the spot where she was killed and 19 others injured when a car slamed into a crowd of people protesting against a white supremacist rally, August 16, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“We lived through this in Virginia in Charlottesville in 2017,” Taylor said according to NBC Washington. “I promise Henricoans that this egregious criminal act will not go unpunished. Hate has no place here under my watch.”
Rogers is set to appear in court in August.
