Man Arrested, Charged In Charlottesville Beating

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA—Local police in Georgia have arrested a suspect tied to an assault at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville Aug. 12.

Cobb County, Ga. Police arrested Alex Michael Ramos, 33, officials said Tuesday. He is being held at the Monroe County Jail. A spokesman for the Monroe County jail told The Washington Post Ramos turned himself in Monday night.

Over the weekend, Georgia officials confirmed with the Charlottesville Police Department that an arrest warrant had been issued for Ramos, 33, of Jackson for "malicious wounding."

Since violence broke out in Charlottesville, activists have pushed to identify those involved in the "Unite the Right" rally. In a video believed to include Ramos, a group of men appeared to beat and stomp on DeAndre Harris, a 20-year-old black man. The video went viral shortly after the incident.

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Harris' lawyer said the victim had been beaten in a parking garage by six men. Harris suffered a broken wrist and head injuries that required 10 staples, The New York Times reported.

Another video appears to show Ramos using pepper spray on a crowd.

Ramos himself uploaded a video shortly after the events in Charlottesville, saying he was of Puerto Rican descent but proudly marched marched with the white supremacists. He also seemingly defended the violence that took place. “Nobody else was protecting us. Yeah, I’m glad I stomped some a** out there,” he says in the viral clip. “You hurt my people I guess we hurt you back.”

In the weeks since, throngs of people have been alerting Cobb's law enforcement of Ramos' alleged involvement in the violence, but authorities said that until a warrant had been issued by Virginia authorities, there was not much they could do.

Police have also arrested another suspect connection with the assault on Harris, according to The New York Times. Daniel P. Borden, 18, of Mason, Ohio is charged with malicious wounding. He was arrested Friday and was taken to the Hamilton County Justice Center in Cincinnati.

Three people died in relation to the outbreak of violence in Charlottesville. Counter-protester Heather Heyer, a resident of Charlottesville, and dozens of others were injured when a driver believed to be a white nationalist plowed into a crowd. Hours later, two Virginia state troopers, Lt. H. Jay Cullen, 48, of Midlothian, Virginia, and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates of Quinton, Virginia, died in a helicopter crash while monitoring the violence.

The driver that plowed into the crowd has been identified as James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Maumee, Ohio. He is being held at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail and is charged with second-degree murder and other counts for allegedly driving a car into the crowd, killing a woman and injuring 19 others.

White nationalists were in Charlottesville to protest the city's decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Reporting from Georgia by Patch Editor Craig Johnson

Image via Cobb County Police