The Gold Coast Bulletin

Car-kill suspect accused of beating his disabled mum

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THE driver charged with killing a woman at a white nationalis­t rally in Charlottes­ville was previously accused of beating his mother and threatenin­g her with a knife, according to police records.

Samantha Bloom, who is disabled and uses a wheelchair, repeatedly called police about her son, James Alex Fields Jr, (pictured) in 2010 and 2011, telling officers he was on medication to control his temper, transcript­s from 911 calls show.

Fields, 20, is accused of ramming his car into a crowd of counter-protesters on Saturday in Charlottes­ville, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. Fields, described by a former high school teacher as an admirer of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, was charged with second-degree murder.

A judge denied him bail on Monday after the public defender’s office said it couldn’t represent him because a relative of someone in the office was injured in Saturday’s protest.

Fields was assigned a local attorney and another hearing was set for August 25.

Records show that Fields was arrested and put in juvenile detention after his mother reported in 2011 that he stood behind her wielding a 12-inch knife. In another incident in 2010, she said her son smacked her in the head and locked her in the bathroom after she told him to stop playing video games.

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