This eyewitness to the violence in Charlottesville tells his story

Unite the Right clashed with Antifa and Black Lives Matter this weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, resulting in the death of Heather Heyer when a car, allegedly driven by James Alex Fields, Jr., plowed into the crowd.

The media has since excoriated President Donald Trump for stating that “there’s blame on both sides” and that there were “some very fine people on both sides.” They have interpreted this last statement overwhelmingly as an endorsement of white supremacists. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) also tweeted disagreement with Trump’s assessment.

Chris Salcedo welcomed an eyewitness on today’s “Chris Salcedo Show.” Lee, who only used his first name because he fears extremist retaliation, says he is not a white supremacist. He joined Unite the Right’s efforts to protect a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee with a group of multi-racial persons who wanted to preserve a historical monument.

He said he and his companions – black, Hispanic, and mixed ethnicity – ultimately felt duped when they realized the event “definitely wasn’t as advertised.” He also said the left leaning protesters there were armed with bottles of acid and balloons filled with paint and urine, as well as other substances he thought might be chemical drain opener.

Charlottesville police chief Al Thomas had told reporters after the incident: “We did have mutually combating individuals in the crowd.”

Lee believed the tense situation was “definitely set up” by the local police. He described re-rerouted parking that funneled the two opposing protest groups together, with crowd control measures that made it incredibly difficult to leave.

Other witnesses have reported that police seemed to take a hands-off approach to the violence.

To see more from Chris, visit his channel onTheBlaze and listen live to “The Chris Salcedo Show” weekdays 3–5 p.m. ET, only on TheBlaze Radio Network.