Peaceful Protest Planned In Response To Virginia Violence In Princeton Sunday

PRINCETON, NJ — Several local groups are responding to Saturday’s violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which three people were killed and dozens more were injured in riots related to a Nazi-flavored white nationalist rally.

The groups will come together to host a “We Stand With Charlottesville” rally at Palmer Square in Princeton on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m., Planet Princeton reports. Anyone who wants to peacefully stand against hate is invited to participate.

At least one person was killed and 19 others were injured after a car plowed into a group of people at the rally on Saturday. The driver of the car, 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr., of Ohio was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and hit-and-run attended failure to stop with injury.

A few hours later, a state police helicopter that had been helping to monitor Saturday's events crashed in a wooded area, killing both troopers who were aboard the chopper. They were identified as Lieutenant H. Jay Cullen, 48, of Midlothian, Va., and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates of Quinton, Va. Both troopers died at the scene.

The incident followed a march by hundreds of white nationalists Friday night, holding torches while chanting anti-Semitic slurs.

See related: White Nationalist Rally In Charlottesville: Unlawful Assembly Declared, Clashes Reported At Emancipation Park

See related: Police Stood By As Mayhem Mounted In Charlottesville

Photo: Officers clash with counter protestors after the Ku Klux Klan staged a protest on July 8, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, photo by Chet Strange/Getty Images News/Getty Images