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White nationalist Christopher Cantwell turns himself in

Christopher Cantwell, the white supremacist at the center of that Vice News video posted to social media, has turned himself into police.

There were warrants out for his arrest in Charlottesville because of the violence that followed the protests.

Cantwell is being held in a jail in Lynchburg, Va.

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Multiple attempts to reach the University of Virginia Police and Lynchburg Police Department for comment were not immediately returned.

He was wanted on three felony charges — two counts of the illegal use of tear gas or other gases and one count of malicious bodily injury with a "caustic substance," explosive or fire.

Cantwell told The Associated Press that he had pepper-sprayed a counter demonstrator the night before the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, but he claimed he was defending himself, "because my only other option was knocking out his teeth."

Cantwell and other white nationalists had marched through U.Va.'s campus Aug. 11, with tiki torches in hand, where they were met by counter-protesters. Heather Heyer, 32, was killed the next day when James Alex Fields Jr. allegedly slammed a car into a crowd protesting the rally.

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He had been featured in a Vice News documentary about the violence in Charlottesville where he said he thought the vehicle attack was "more than justified." Cantwell also called the crowd "stupid animals" who "couldn't just get out of the way of his car."

Days later, Cantwell posted a teary video on social media in which he cried due to his fear of being arrested for his alleged role in the violence.

In Charlottesville, lawmakers voted Tuesday to drape the Confederate statues in black fabric. The "Unite the Right" rally had initially been planned in protest of the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

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