3 Stabbed At California KKK Gathering, Police Say

Police said three people were stabbed Saturday at a Ku Klux Klan gathering in Southern California.

An altercation between a group of KKK members and counter-protesters erupted at a Klan rally in Anaheim, with both sides involved in violent attacks, Sgt. Daron Wyatt with the Anaheim Police Department told The Associated Press.

Three people, all initially believed to be counter-protesters, were stabbed. One person was in custody.

Witnesses told the Los Angeles Times the Klansmen used the point of a flagpole as a weapon while fighting with counter-protesters.

A Klansman in handcuffs could be heard telling a police officer that he "stabbed him in self-defense," the Times reported. Several other people were also handcuffed.

Wyatt said a Klan member was stomped on by counter-protesters during another altercation. Three people were detained in that incident.

No information on the other victims' conditions was immediately available. Authorities say the investigation is ongoing.

The KKK has a long history in Southern California, with Klansmen holding elected office in Anaheim in the 1920s. Nationwide, the number of active KKK groups increased to 190 in 2015 after falling in 2013 and 2014, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

In January 2015, packets containing fliers condemning Martin Luther King, Jr. and supporting the Ku Klux Klan were left in the driveways of about 40 homes in Santa Ana, about eight miles south of Anaheim. The baggies contained a KKK business card, rock and candy.

The fliers opened with the heading, "On Martin Luther King Day, you are celebrating a communist pervert." The bottom of the fliers state they came from the "Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan."