Third White Supremacist Arrested in Beating of Black Man in Charlottesville

A third white supremacist accused of participating in a brutal attack on a Black man during the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va. has been arrested, an Arkansas law enforcement official said Wednesday, according to the Washington Post. Jacob Scott Goodwin, 22, of Ward, Ark., is allegedly one of at least five men who can be seen in online video footage pummeling DeAndre Harris, a 20-year-old former special education instruction assistant, inside a parking garage after the Aug. 12 rally. The footage shows a man identified by police as Goodwin, clad in a tactical military helmet and carrying a large plastic shield, kicking Harris on the ground. At one point, Goodwin appears to hit Harris with his shield. The attack on Harris, viewed tens of thousands of times on YouTube, has become a symbol of the violence and racial enmity that engulfed Charlottesville when white supremacists, Klan members and neo-Nazis clashed with counterprotesters. One counterprotester, Heather Heyer, 32, was killed when a Dodge Challenger allegedly driven by James Alex Fields Jr., a Nazi sympathizer, plowed into her and several others. But the confrontation at the parking garage — located next to the Charlottesville police department headquarters — became a bigger flashpoint this week after Harris was charged with a crime in connection with the brawl. A local magistrate issued an arrest warrant Monday for Harris on a felony charge of unlawful wounding, based on a complaint by Harold Ray Crews, a lawyer and self-described “Southern nationalist,” who alleges Harris injured him by hitting him with a flashlight right before the garage brawl. The charge against Harris, who suffered a spinal injury and a head laceration that required 10 stitches, outraged Black Lives Matter activists but delighted white supremacists.  Goodwin’s arrest came Tuesday night after two other assailants were charged with malicious wounding weeks ago: Daniel P. Borden, 18, of Ohio, and Alex Michael Ramos, 33, of Georgia. Goodwin was taken into custody near his hometown in central Arkansas by U.S. marshals, according to the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office. He is being held at the sheriff’s detention center until he’s extradited to Virginia, said Lt. Matt Edwards, a Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office spokesman. He did not know the specific charge against Goodwin.