Multiple people stabbed at neo-Nazi event outside Capitol in Sacramento

At least five people were stabbed, with some injured critically, during clashes betweeing rallying neo-Nazis and counter-protesters at the Capitol in Sacramento Sunday, fire officials said.

Chris Harvey, public information officer for the Sacramento Fire Department, said five patients were transported to local hospitals with critical stab wounds. Several other people suffered cuts, scrapes and bruises but were not taken to the hospital, Harvey said.

“It was quite a bit of a melee,” Harvey said, mentioning that several different groups had descended on the Capitol, including counter protesters.

Harvey said he did not know which groups the stabbing victims were from.

Emergency responders got the call at roughly 11:45 am. The victims were spread out over the Capitol grounds, which covers multiple blocks in downtown Sacramento, Harvey said. As of 12:45pm, the crowds had been dispersed and most protesters had left the area.

The Traditional Worker Party, a white supremacist, anti-immigration group, was holding a march Sunday “to protest against globalization and in defense of the right to free expression,” according to the group’s website. They appeared to be vastly outnumbered by counter protesters, who held up signs that read “Nazi scum,” according to photos and videos posted on social media.

An organizer of the rally who wasn’t at the capitol, said on a web live stream that one person from his group had been stabbed and was being transported to the hospital.

“They got one of us but we got six of them,” he said.

Frances Wang, a local ABC10 reporter at the rally, wrote on Twitter that there were “blood spatters all over the ground. Police trying to control crowds.”

Video from ABC10 in Sacramento showed portions of the clash.

The group describes itself this way on its website: “The Traditionalist Worker Party is America’s first political party created by and for working families. Our mission is defending faith, family, and folk against the politicians and oligarchs who are running America into the ground. We intend to achieve that goal by building a nationwide network of grassroots local leaders who will lead Americans toward a peaceful and prosperous future free from economic exploitation, federal tyranny, and anti-Christian degeneracy.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups, said the party was part of a new breed of white nationalist organizations that fielded candidates in local elections.\

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