CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A Ku Klux Klan leader charged with firing a gun during the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in August has been denied bail.
Richard Wilson Preston, 52, was arrested following the release of a video, filmed by the ACLU of Virginia, that allegedly shows him in a verbal altercation with counterprotesters. In the video, counterprotesters appear to throw objects at right-wing marchers.
Richard Wilson Preston
After several seconds, the man in the video, who is wearing a load-bearing vest, with a pistol on one leg and extra magazines on the other, turns away from the argument and walks away. Before reaching the edge of the frame, he turns back, drawing a pistol and shouting “Hey, n****r.”
The man then fired a shot, before turning around, holstering his weapon, and rejoining the march.
Preston was charged with discharging a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school.
The Baltimore man told a Charlottesville judge that he acted in self-defense. He said that he fired the shot after a friend was threatened by someone holding a makeshift flamethrower, the Daily Progress reports.
Preston will remain in the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail pending a December hearing.
The CNN Wire contributed to this article.
