'Evil in the air': Former Winnipegger describes downtown Charlottesville following attack

When Christopher Ali arrived in downtown Charlottesville, Va.,he found an eerie silence.

"You could definitely smell it. You could definitely smell that there was evil in the air and heartbreak and so much sadness as well," said Ali, 34.

The former Winnipegger has lived in Charlottesville for five years. That morning, he had intendedto join a counter-protest against a white nationalist rally. He arrived minutes after a violent attack that left one dead and 19 injured.

Heather Heyer, 32, died after being hit by a car that plowed into the group of counter-protesters.

The 20-year-old male driver, James Alex Fields Jr. of Ohio, was arrested and later charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and one count related to leaving the scene.

• Civil rights probe launched after clashes at white nationalist rally in Virginia leave 1 dead

Ali was approaching downtown to join counter-protesters with a friend when a woman stopped them and told them to turn around. She told Ali she was worried for their safety if they continued.

But they did. As theygot closer, a young woman ran toward them in tears. She threw up in front of them, and told them she had seen the car driving into the crowd.

When they arrived at the protest site, they still didn't completely understand what had taken place.

"Downtown was so quiet," he said.

"It was this combination of shock and tears and silence and we went to a group of young men and they kind of explained to us what had happened. It was surreal."

He described the police presence as "incredible."

"The mobilization of a heavily armed police force, the national guard, there were armoured vehicles that, to me, looked like tanks. I'm not a military expert, but they were armoured vehicles," he said."It is like nothing I could ever think would ever happen in a city that I was living in."

Ali said he felt a sense of responsibilityto attend the counter-protest Saturday.

"As a professor at [the University of Virginia]I owed it to my students. As a gay man of colour, I owed it to those who fought for rights before I was born," he said."Asomeone who grew up privileged, I felt a responsibility to earn that privilege and to be there and lend my voice and my body to those that fight against hate."

Went back Sunday for 'beautiful' vigil

On Sunday, Ali said he went back downtown for two community healing events.

"Downtown was full. People were at restaurants. People were hugging. People were smiling," he said.

• Charlottesville victim Heather Heyer a 'strong' woman who was 'all about equality'

He attended a multi-denominational vigil for Heyer, where participants held hands, sang and lit candles.

"It was beautiful. Oh, it was so beautiful," he said.

Ali said the experience made him proud to be a human being.

"I'm glad I'm a person on this side who's fighting against hate," he said.

It also made him proud to be a Canadian.

"I'm not naive enough to say that we don't have our own racial tensions and really traumatic race issues that we were continuing working to resolve," he said.

"But there are no people walking in the streets of Winnipeg with permission to use machine guns or hold machine guns, this kind of violence. We don't see swastikas, hundreds of people carrying swastikas and torches. It's just not the way we do things."