Raleigh residents describe “surreal” day in Charlottesville

Raleigh resident Elena Ceberio and her family had protested in Raleigh and Durham before, but nothing could have prepared them for what they saw in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday.

It was surreal.

Ceberio and her husband, Anthony Quartararo, and son, Benat Quartararo, described what it was like amid the protests of white supremacists and counter demostrators that turned violent. They said members of the white supremacist groups pepper sprayed and threw cans filled with concrete and open bottles continaing urine at counter protestors.

Men in combat gear wielding clubs wrapped in the American flag would position themselves in a circle near the counter protestors waiting for people to approach them.

“We witnessed people beaten,” she said. “We witnessed people bloody.”

They were about 20 yards away when a car struck a group of counter protestors, killing one person and injuring 19 others.

“We turned and ran because we didn’t know if it was a gun or a bomb,” she said.

....

Ambulance and two armed personell carriers showed up.

“We saw compund fractures. We saw people carried awy on stretchers with neck braces with leg braces” bones stickiing out.

its very important that we come out and stand up to these poeope and if we don’t they feel like they’ve been enabled.

lady my father escaped franco fascism and he entered this country illegally because he knew this wasn’t right he knew fascism wasn’t right he gave that to my brother and me. freedom for all people. to love who you want to be whether you’re gay or straight its personal freedom. and these pole want to usurp that by name calling and hate.

tony we need to stare them in the eye and let them know it won’t be acceptable it won’t be tolerated.

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“I think if more people do not stand up and stare this evil down, this evil could envelop the good because people are afraid,” she said. “People are walking away because they are afraid. If they don’t see it, it doesn’t exist. Well we saw it. We felt it.”

This story was originally published August 13, 2017 at 10:49 PM with the headline "Raleigh residents describe “surreal” day in Charlottesville."