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Virginia State Police Say They Didn't Find Caches of Weapons in Charlottesville

• https://reason.com

Contradicting statements by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, the Virginia State Police say they did not find caches of weapons stashed around Charlottesville in advance of last Saturday's deadly white nationalist rally.

In an interview Monday on the Pod Save the People podcast, hosted by Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson, McAuliffe claimed the white nationalists who streamed into Charlottesville that weekend hid weapons throughout the town.

"They had battering rams and we had picked up different weapons that they had stashed around the city," McAuliffe told Mckesson.

McAuliffe's comments were picked up by other news outlets and spread through social media. But Corinne Geller, a spokesperson for the Virginia State Police, says that no such stashes were found.

"The governor was referring to the briefing provided him in advance of Saturday's rally and the extra security measures being taken by local and state police," Geller tells Reason. "As a safety precaution in advance of August 12, such searches were conducted in and around Emancipation and McIntire Parks. No weapons were located as a result of those searches."

The Virginia State Police also disputed McAuliffe's claims that Virginia State Police were underequipped to deal with the heavily armed militia members at Saturday's rally.


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