About 500 far-right protestors came to demonstrate their opposition to Charlottesville City Council's decision to remove Confederate monuments and memorials from public spaces.
[21] In less than an hour, law enforcement began to clear both protesters and counterprotesters from the park after McAuliffe had declared the rally an "unlawful assembly".
[4][5][23] According to photojournalist Zach D. Roberts, who witnessed the assault, the violence began when Charlottesville police pushed protesters into the streets where there were counterprotesters.
"[24][25] During the trial of assailant Jacob Scott Goodwin, arguments made by the defendant's attorney suggested that Harris had initiated the fight by "striking a prominent white nationalist in the head with a flashlight" in response to seeing "a fellow counterprotester being speared in the abdomen with a flagpole".
[26] Harris was separated from his friends in the chaos of the crowd and was "cornered" by white supremacists[27][28][29] who attacked him with poles, metal pipes, and wood slabs.
[36] Shaun King launched an Internet campaign to identify the men involved in the beating, calling on members of the public to examine photos and videos on social media, such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
[21][31][38][39][40] On August 28, 33-year-old Alex Michael Ramos of Marietta, Georgia a member of the Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knights (FOAK) a military branch of the Proud Boys,[31] was arrested on charges of malicious wounding.
[21][41] 22-year-old Jacob Scott Goodwin from Ward, Arkansas a member of neo-Nazi Billy Roper's Shield Wall Network (SWN) and the neo-fascist Traditionalist Workers Party (TWP), was arrested on October 11, 2017.
[1][42] On January 17, 2018, police in Charlottesville, Virginia obtained an arrest warrant for 49-year-old Tyler Watkins Davis of Middleburg, Florida a member of League of the South.
"[44][45][46] On May 1, 2018, white supremacist Jacob Scott Goodwin was convicted of the malicious wounding of Harris by a Charlottesville jury, which recommended a sentence of 10 years imprisonment and a $20,000 (~$23,907 in 2023) fine.
[50] On February 8, 2019, Tyler Watkins Davis entered an Alford plea on the malicious wounding charge; he received a sentence of two years and one month.
"[1][60] On January 10, 2018, Judge Robert Downer downgraded the charge to misdemeanor "assault and battery", an offense that does not carry jail time.
[61] Also on January 10, law enforcement in Southampton County, Virginia charged him for speeding, transporting a loaded rifle and possession of a concealed weapon.