Reason.com's Robby Soave (who did good work during the UVA Rape Hoax) links to a thread from Taylor Lorenz, on the spot in Charlottesville:

Thread https://t.co/4XxIwHZIla

— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) August 12, 2017

Miss Lorenz writes (Translating her tweets into text)

• Here's the full video of the car ramming into protesters. It's toward the end of the stream [Reportedly at 65:50.]

https://www.facebook.com/TheHill/videos/10155164288944087/

• The video cuts off at the end b/c some asshole came over and punched me in the face and kicked my phone for recording (I said I was press)
• I'm filing a charge against the guy for punching me but it's slammed at the police station right now so prob nothing will happen ??????
• In the meantime the police are asking private citizens with video of the car to share them with authorities. They have arrested the driver
• The driver was taken into police custody right after the incident. Police say the car was covered in dents prior and apparently hit by a bat
• If you watch the earlier part of my stream you can see anti-right wing chasing after a Lexus and throwing rocks, bottles, a shoe
• This car was not the one that mowed people down. That was a differ grey car
• Anyway several police officers at the station here think the guy running people down wasn't malicious. They said the driver was scared
• His car was being swarmed by protesters and some of them were getting violent (like the guy who punched me/threw me down)

That being the case, it's possible that a jury will find he acted in self defense. In 2016, Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) responded to a report of rioters surrounding and attacking cars by tweeting "Run them down".

In spite of the fact that he's a law professor who heads an internet media empire, and has 82,000 followers on Twitter, his Twitter  account was instantly suspended, and only restored on condition that he delete that Tweet, pictured and memed above.

But he wasn't wrong—I did a whole column about it, which I'll just quote part of:

Reynolds wrote

TWITTER HAS UNBLOCKED MY ACCOUNT ON CONDITION OF DELETING THE OFFENDING TWEET. But lest I be accused of airbrushing, it’s preserved here. Still planning on quitting Twitter, though, after making a few points. Earlier post is here.

UPDATE: From Nick Gillespie at Reason: In Defense Of InstaPundit’s Glenn Reynolds. “Whatever you think of the tastefulness of his suggestion regarding the protesters in Charlotte, the idea that he is seriously inciting any sort of actual or real threat is risible.”

Related: “Glenn Reynolds is old enough to remember Reginald Denny. (Look it up, kids.)”

Reginald Denny was the trucker who allowed himself to be pulled from his enormous vehicle and was beaten by four black youths:

Wikipedia: "As a result of the injuries he suffered during the attacks, Denny had to undergo years of rehabilitative therapy, and his speech and ability to walk were permanently damaged."

The 1983 book The Truth About Self-Protection [Read it on OpenLibrary] by Massad Ayoob (who, if you've never heard of him, is a "hundred percent American" like the late Danny Thomas) was written before the "Rodney King Riots" in LA, but after the Liberty City riots of 1980. Chapter 20 is "The Truth About Cars", considered both as a place to be attacked, and a means of escape and defense.

From page 156

"But when someone threatens your life, your car is two things: It is an escape and it is a weapon. It can get you away from danger fast and if worse comes to worse, it's a multithousand-pound guided bludgeon that strikes with an impact force that makes a Magnum bullet seem like a hiccup. The .357 slug delivers about 350 foot-pounds of energy. A 4,000-pound car at 30 miles an hour delivers 120,000 foot-pounds of energy, and almost half a million foot-pounds of energy at 60 miles an hour."

Think about that, the next time someone who tries to run over a police officer and gets shot is described as an "unarmed" teen.

From Page 172-173 [emphasis added by me, both in Ayoob and Wikipedia]

"But suppose you are being attacked by people on foot, and you manage to gain the very temporary sanctuary of your automobile?

It may not be a fortress, but your car is still an escape avenue and a mobile battering ram, a weapon deadlier than any gun. Innocent people have died when they were surrounded by fanatical rioters and panicked—look at the horror of the Miami riots.

From Wikipedia on the 1980 Miami riots (which were the worst between the '60s and Rodney King.)

The first day:

three people were killed and at least 23 injured, with several of those in critical condition.

Florida governor Bob Graham ordered 500 National Guard troops into the area; despite his doubling their number the next day, the riot continued. Twelve more people were killed and 165 were injured as violence spread to the Black Grove, Overtown, Liberty City and Brownsville sections of the city. In addition, fires, burglaries and looting increased, with police reluctant to enter some areas for fear of sniper fire.

In the end, 18 men and women died,three hundred and fifty people, some of them children, were hurt, and six hundred people were arrested. Property destruction exceeded $100 million.

So if this guy, whoever he is, was surrounded by rioters with bats, this may have been a reasonable, or at least excusable response. Charlottesville police don't think so, and are calling it "premeditated":

Charlottesville police chief says violence was "premeditated," suspect is in custody https://t.co/rtTBkVpHdc

— NBC News (@NBCNews) August 12, 2017

That sounds unlikely—assuming the driver isn't a Muslim—and it's worth noting the police are always slow to admit that any justifiable homicide not committed by a police officer is in fact justifiable. We'll have to wait and see.