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What we know about the violent clashes and car ramming in Charlottesville – ABC News

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A driver rammed a car into a crowd protesting a white nationalist rally in Virginia on Saturday afternoon, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring several others — and leaving many lawmakers and ordinary Americans shocked, angry and upset.

There were two other fatalities related to the rally: Two Virginia State Police officers monitoring the situation from the air were killed when their helicopter crashed into forest nearby. The officers — Lt. H. Jay Cullen and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates — died at the scene.

The details we know so far:

What happened

The chaos kicked off when a group of white nationalists — including neo-Nazis, skinheads and Ku Klux Klan members — descended on Charlottesville for a Unite the Right rally. The gathering was spurred on by the city’s plans to eliminate a Confederate statue from a local park. The white nationalists were met with hundreds of counterprotesters, and street brawls and violent clashes broke out. That prompted Gov. Terry McAuliffe to proclaim a state of emergency.

Protesters gather at Justice Park in Charlottesville #cvilleaug12 pic.twitter.com/sprSzf0MTP

As the counterprotesters marched along a downtown street, a silver Dodge Challenger barreled through the crowd. The influence threw people into the air and left a 32-year-old woman, Heather Heyer, dead.

“It was a wave of people flying at me,” Sam Becker, 24, told The Associated Press as he sat in a hospital emergency room, where he was treated for gam and arm injuries.

UPDATE: one deceased, nineteen injured in crash at 4th and Water streets. Fifteen other injuries reported related to rally downtown #cvilleaug12 pic.twitter.com/o9bVuUvdh2

— Charlottesville City (@CvilleCityHall) August 12, two thousand seventeen

Who is the suspect, and what are the charges?

Law enforcement officials say the driver was James Alex Fields Jr., a 20-year-old who recently moved to Ohio from Kentucky, where he grew up.

Fields’ mother, Samantha Bloom, told The Associated Press during an interview in Toledo, Ohio, that she knew her son was attending a rally but she thought it was a rally for President Trump, not for white nationalists.

Abermarle Charlottesville Regional Jail

“I thought it had something to do with Trump. Trump’s not a white supremacist,” she said.

She added, “I just knew he was going to a rally. I mean, I attempt to stay out of his political views. You know, we don’t, you know, I don’t indeed get too involved, I moved him out to his own apartment, so we — I’m watching his cat.”

Fields was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and one count related to leaving the scene. A bond hearing is scheduled for Monday.

Derek Weimer, who trained history to Fields at Randall K. Cooper High School in Union, Kentucky, described the suspect’s “radical ideas on race” to ABC’s Cincinnati affiliate, WCPO.

“He was very infatuated with the Nazis, with Adolf Hitler. He also had a thick military history, especially with German military history and World War II. But he was pretty infatuated with that stuff,” Weimer told WCPO. He said that overall, Fields was a quiet, respectful student, albeit with radical views.

“In his freshman year, he had an issue with that that was raised, and from then on, we knew that he had those issues. I developed a good rapport with him and used that rapport to permanently attempt to steer him away from those beliefs to demonstrate clear examples — why that thinking is wrong, why their beliefs were evil, you know, things like that,” Weimer said.

Who else was arrested?

Virginia State Police announced on Saturday night that three other people were arrested in relation to the rally: Troy Dunigan, 21, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, charged with disorderly conduct; Jacob L. Smith, 21, of Louisa, Virginia, charged with misdemeanor onslaught and battery; and James M. O’Brien, 44, of Gainesville, Florida, charged with carrying a concealed handgun.

UPDATE: three arrested in connection with events in Charlottesville today. #cvilleaug12 pic.twitter.com/kGAjfsMFv9

Victims

Heyer, who worked as a paralegal in Charlottesville, was taken to UVA Medical Center after the ramming, where she was pronounced dead. A GoFundMe page for her memorial raised over $80,000 in just eleven hours.

Of the nineteen other victims of the ramming who were transported to UVA Medical Center, ten are in good condition, and nine have been discharged, Angela Taylor with UVA Health Systems said on Sunday afternoon. She added that the hospital has treated extra patients related to Saturday’s events but the facility does not have an exact number of patients.

Lawmakers react

In remarks from his golf club in Fresh Jersey on Saturday, President Donald Trump said, “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. On many sides.”

His implication that “many sides” were responsible for the violence didn’t sit well with lawmakers and private citizens.

“Very significant for the nation to hear @potus describe events in #Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by #whitesupremacists,” tweeted Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

Very significant for the nation to hear @potus describe events in #Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by #whitesupremacists

Facing mounting criticism, the White House issued a statement on Sunday, telling, “The president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred, and of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together.”

Others politicians who weighed in were less critical of Trump but voiced their disgust at the rally and its attendees.

Sen. Ted Cruz slammed the violence associated with the rally and its aftermath in a strongly worded Facebook post, writing, “The Nazis, the KKK and white supremacists are repulsive and evil, and all of us have a moral obligation to speak out against the lies, bigotry, anti-Semitism and hatred that they propagate.”

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the lone African-American Republican in the Senate, called the attack “domestic terror” and encouraged it to be “condemned.”

“Otherwise hate is simply emboldened,” he wrote.

Domestic terror in #Charlottesville must be condemned by https://t.co/3gbI2ZFxr5. Otherwise hate is simply emboldened.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a self-described democratic socialist, called the rally “reprehensible.”

“The white nationalist demonstration in #Charlottesville is a reprehensible display of racism and hatred that has no place in our society,” he wrote.

The white nationalist demonstration in #Charlottesville is a reprehensible display of racism and hatred that has no place in our society.

Sunday’s vigils and solidarity rallies

Gatherings across the country were held Sunday to stand in solidarity with Charlottesville. In Washington, D.C., alone there were at least three: a candlelight vigil at the White House, the Vigil for Justice at the World War II Memorial at the National Mall and the Sea of Light in Solidarity with #Charlottesville at Lafayette Park.

Other rallies were scheduled for Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Denver, Fresh York City and Chicago.

What we know about the violent clashes and car ramming in Charlottesville – ABC News

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Yahoo!-ABC News Network | © two thousand seventeen ABC News Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.

  • Yahoo!-ABC News Network | © two thousand seventeen ABC News Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.
  • 0 Shares

Jeremiah Knupp/USA Today Network

  • 0 Shares

A driver rammed a car into a crowd protesting a white nationalist rally in Virginia on Saturday afternoon, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring several others — and leaving many lawmakers and ordinary Americans shocked, angry and upset.

There were two other fatalities related to the rally: Two Virginia State Police officers monitoring the situation from the air were killed when their helicopter crashed into forest nearby. The officers — Lt. H. Jay Cullen and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates — died at the scene.

The details we know so far:

What happened

The chaos kicked off when a group of white nationalists — including neo-Nazis, skinheads and Ku Klux Klan members — descended on Charlottesville for a Unite the Right rally. The gathering was spurred on by the city’s plans to liquidate a Confederate statue from a local park. The white nationalists were met with hundreds of counterprotesters, and street brawls and violent clashes broke out. That prompted Gov. Terry McAuliffe to proclaim a state of emergency.

Protesters gather at Justice Park in Charlottesville #cvilleaug12 pic.twitter.com/sprSzf0MTP

As the counterprotesters marched along a downtown street, a silver Dodge Challenger barreled through the crowd. The influence threw people into the air and left a 32-year-old woman, Heather Heyer, dead.

“It was a wave of people flying at me,” Sam Becker, 24, told The Associated Press as he sat in a hospital emergency room, where he was treated for gam and arm injuries.

UPDATE: one deceased, nineteen injured in crash at 4th and Water streets. Fifteen other injuries reported related to rally downtown #cvilleaug12 pic.twitter.com/o9bVuUvdh2

— Charlottesville City (@CvilleCityHall) August 12, two thousand seventeen

Who is the suspect, and what are the charges?

Law enforcement officials say the driver was James Alex Fields Jr., a 20-year-old who recently moved to Ohio from Kentucky, where he grew up.

Fields’ mother, Samantha Bloom, told The Associated Press during an interview in Toledo, Ohio, that she knew her son was attending a rally but she thought it was a rally for President Trump, not for white nationalists.

Abermarle Charlottesville Regional Jail

“I thought it had something to do with Trump. Trump’s not a white supremacist,” she said.

She added, “I just knew he was going to a rally. I mean, I attempt to stay out of his political views. You know, we don’t, you know, I don’t truly get too involved, I moved him out to his own apartment, so we — I’m watching his cat.”

Fields was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and one count related to leaving the scene. A bond hearing is scheduled for Monday.

Derek Weimer, who instructed history to Fields at Randall K. Cooper High School in Union, Kentucky, described the suspect’s “radical ideas on race” to ABC’s Cincinnati affiliate, WCPO.

“He was very infatuated with the Nazis, with Adolf Hitler. He also had a thick military history, especially with German military history and World War II. But he was pretty infatuated with that stuff,” Weimer told WCPO. He said that overall, Fields was a quiet, respectful student, albeit with radical views.

“In his freshman year, he had an issue with that that was raised, and from then on, we knew that he had those issues. I developed a good rapport with him and used that rapport to permanently attempt to steer him away from those beliefs to demonstrate clear examples — why that thinking is wrong, why their beliefs were evil, you know, things like that,” Weimer said.

Who else was arrested?

Virginia State Police announced on Saturday night that three other people were arrested in relation to the rally: Troy Dunigan, 21, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, charged with disorderly conduct; Jacob L. Smith, 21, of Louisa, Virginia, charged with misdemeanor attack and battery; and James M. O’Brien, 44, of Gainesville, Florida, charged with carrying a concealed handgun.

UPDATE: three arrested in connection with events in Charlottesville today. #cvilleaug12 pic.twitter.com/kGAjfsMFv9

Victims

Heyer, who worked as a paralegal in Charlottesville, was taken to UVA Medical Center after the ramming, where she was pronounced dead. A GoFundMe page for her memorial raised over $80,000 in just eleven hours.

Of the nineteen other victims of the ramming who were transported to UVA Medical Center, ten are in good condition, and nine have been discharged, Angela Taylor with UVA Health Systems said on Sunday afternoon. She added that the hospital has treated extra patients related to Saturday’s events but the facility does not have an exact number of patients.

Lawmakers react

In remarks from his golf club in Fresh Jersey on Saturday, President Donald Trump said, “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. On many sides.”

His implication that “many sides” were responsible for the violence didn’t sit well with lawmakers and private citizens.

“Very significant for the nation to hear @potus describe events in #Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by #whitesupremacists,” tweeted Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

Very significant for the nation to hear @potus describe events in #Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by #whitesupremacists

Facing mounting criticism, the White House issued a statement on Sunday, telling, “The president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred, and of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together.”

Others politicians who weighed in were less critical of Trump but voiced their disgust at the rally and its attendees.

Sen. Ted Cruz slammed the violence associated with the rally and its aftermath in a strongly worded Facebook post, writing, “The Nazis, the KKK and white supremacists are repulsive and evil, and all of us have a moral obligation to speak out against the lies, bigotry, anti-Semitism and hatred that they propagate.”

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the lone African-American Republican in the Senate, called the attack “domestic terror” and encouraged it to be “condemned.”

“Otherwise hate is simply emboldened,” he wrote.

Domestic terror in #Charlottesville must be condemned by https://t.co/3gbI2ZFxr5. Otherwise hate is simply emboldened.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a self-described democratic socialist, called the rally “reprehensible.”

“The white nationalist demonstration in #Charlottesville is a reprehensible display of racism and hatred that has no place in our society,” he wrote.

The white nationalist demonstration in #Charlottesville is a reprehensible display of racism and hatred that has no place in our society.

Sunday’s vigils and solidarity rallies

Gatherings across the country were held Sunday to stand in solidarity with Charlottesville. In Washington, D.C., alone there were at least three: a candlelight vigil at the White House, the Vigil for Justice at the World War II Memorial at the National Mall and the Sea of Light in Solidarity with #Charlottesville at Lafayette Park.

Other rallies were scheduled for Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Denver, Fresh York City and Chicago.

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