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7 charged with attacking KKK members during Anaheim rally
A police officer investigates the scene near Pearson Park in Anaheim, California, February 27, 2016, after three counter-protesters were stabbed while clashing with Ku Klux Klan members staging a rally. Thirteen people were arrested. / AFP / RINGO CHIU (Photo credit should read RINGO CHIU/AFP/Getty Images)
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RINGO CHIU/AFP/Getty Images
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Sgt. Daron Wyatt with the Anaheim Police Department tells The Associated Press two people who were part of a counter-protest at a KKK gathering Saturday afternoon in Anaheim were stabbed in separate incidents.
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NBC Los Angeles
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Police said that one suspect was at large and is wanted for suspicion of assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury following violence at an anti-immigration protest put on by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
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Anaheim Police Department
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Seven counter-protesters have been charged with attacking white supremacists during a late-February rally in Anaheim, according to a statement from Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Police are still looking for an unidentified counter-protester in a blue shirt who kicked a Klansman in the head, according to the statement. The others were charged with misdemeanor assault or battery.
“This case is not about who was holding the protest rally, their racist message, or who was counter protesting. This is about the mob mentality turning violent, which shut down neighboring streets, access to the park, and endangered the community as a whole,” said Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas in the statement. “Our office does not condone any message of hate, mob violence, or vigilante justice.”
The scene was set when Ku Klux Klan members announced their intention to hold a rally at Pearson Park on Saturday, Feb. 27.
The announcement drew more than 50 counter-protesters to the location. They eventually encountered seven Klan members who arrived in a pair of vehicles, according to the statement. The counter-protesters then surrounded the Klan group, and a melee that involved punches, kicks, a knife and even a flagpole was triggered. Three people were stabbed, one critically.
The people charged were:
Hugo Contreras, 28, of Hawthorne;
Randy Felder, 26, of Lakewood;
Guy Harris, 20, of Anaheim;
Mark Liddell, 26, of Los Angeles;
Armando Ortiz, 22, of Santa Ana;
Nicole Schop, 24, of Los Angeles;
Alexis Solis, 23, identified as a transient.
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