RENO — A Nevada college student who was photographed marching in Virginia before a deadly white supremacist rally says he’s not an “angry racist.”
KTVN-TV interviewed 20-year-old Peter Cvjetanovic after he was identified online in a photo showing white nationalists marching through the University of Virginia campus carrying torches Friday.
On Saturday, a car plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters as tensions turned violent at a related rally, leaving three dead and dozens more injured.
Cvjetanovic, an undergraduate at the University of Nevada in Reno studying history and political science, said he didn’t expect the photo to spread as much as it has online.
“I understand the photo has a very negative connotation. But I hope that the people sharing the photo are willing to listen that I’m not the angry racist they see in that photo,” Cvjetanovic said.
He said he’s a white nationalist who cares for all people.
“We all deserve a future for our children and for our culture. White nationalists aren’t all hateful; we just want to preserve what we have,” Cvjetanovic said.
Republican Senator Dean Heller of Nevada, after a photo of the two reportedly surfaced, condemned the events on Twitter and said he didn’t know Cvjetanovic.
The university in a statement acknowledged a student was identified in the photo and, without naming Cvjetanovic, denounced the movement as corrosive to society.