Man, 21, charged with assault of political journalist at Charlottesville rally
WASHINGTON- A 21-year-old man has been charged in connection with the assault of a Capitol Hill reporter during last weekend’s violent clash between white nationalists and anti-racist counter-protesters at a rally in Charlottesville, Va., according to the Virginia State Police.
Jacob L. Smith, of Louisa, Va., was charged with misdemeanor assault Saturday after being arrested for having allegedly punched Taylor Lorenz in the face. Lorenz was covering the rally for The Hill and was standing in a crowd of counter-protesters when the incident took place.
In her statement to police, Lorenz said: “This man came up and started yelling at me to stop recording. I showed him my press credentials (I’m a reporter) and he started screaming at me. Then he came up behind me, punched me in the face,” she wrote.
Four other people also were arrested Saturday.
Lorenz was filming the chaos that ensued after an alleged white supremacist drove his car through the crowd of counter-protesters killing 32-year-old Charlottesville paralegal Heather Heyer.
James Alex Fields Jr. was charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and failure to stop in an accident that resulted in death.
The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into Heyer’s death.
At least 19 people were injured. Two Virginia state troopers also were killed when a helicopter monitoring the protests crashed. The funeral for Trooper Berke Bates, the pilot, is set for Friday in Richmond and the funeral for Lt. H. Jay Cullen is scheduled for Saturday in Chesterfield. The investigation into the crash is continuing.
This article is republished with permission from Talk Media News
Bryan is an award-winning political journalist who has extensive experience covering Congress and Maryland state government.
His work includes coverage of the election of Donald Trump, the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and attorneys general William Barr and Jeff Sessions-as well as that of the Maryland General Assembly, Gov. Larry Hogan, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bryan has broken stories involving athletic and sexual assault scandals with the Baltimore Post-Examiner.
His original UMBC investigation gained international attention, was featured in People Magazine and he was interviewed by ABC’s “Good Morning America” and local radio stations. Bryan broke subsequent stories documenting UMBC’s omission of a sexual assault on their daily crime log and a federal investigation related to the university’s handling of an alleged sexual assault.