A woman was killed after a car plowed into a crowd of protesters demonstrating against white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Heather Heyer, 32, was the lone person killed in Saturday’s violence when James Alex Fields, Jr., 20, drove his silver Dodge Challenger into the protesting group. Several dozen more were injured.
Heyer’s friends and family confirmed her death, with friend Felicia Venita Correa setting up a GoFundMe page to raise money for her family.
According to the New York Daily News and the New York Post, she was a paralegal with the Miller Law Group.
It’s unclear whether Heyer was taking part in the demonstrations.
Her final Facebook post suggested that she had a reason to be there. “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention,” wrote Heyer, the Daily News reported. And her friend seemed to suggest that she was protesting.
“She died doing what was right. My heart is broken, but I am forever proud of her,” Correa said. “Heather Heyer was murdered while protesting against hate. We are raising money to give to her family for anything that they may need. The family is aware of this and is in complete charge of when and where the funds will be released,” the GoFundMe page reads.
Fields, meanwhile, was charged with second-degree murder.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a statement on Saturday night about the probe.
“The Richmond FBI Field Office, the Civil Rights Division, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia have opened a civil rights investigation into the circumstances of the deadly vehicular incident that occurred earlier Saturday morning,” Sessions said in a statement. “The FBI will collect all available facts and evidence, and as this is an ongoing investigation we are not able to comment further at this time.”
The “Unite the Right” rally that Fields had attended was organized by right-wing blogger Jason Kessler, who sought to protest against the city of Charlottesville’s move to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
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