Man charged with hate crimes in deadly Charlottesville crash
Federal prosecutors Wednesday filed dozens of hate crime charges against the Toledo man they say killed a woman during last summer’s Charlottesville, Va., white nationalist rally.
A grand jury sitting in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Charlottesville handed up the indictment against James Fields Jr., 21. He faces one count of hate crime resulting in death, 28 counts of hate crime involving attempt to kill, and one count of bias-motivated interference with federally protected activity resulting in death.
The Aug. 12 crash at a “Unite the Right” rally killed counterprotester Heather Heyer, 32. Officials said they are now weighing whether to pursue the death penalty against Mr. Fields.
Prosecutors revealed in the indictment a series of messages Mr. Fields shared and firmer timeline of the deadly crash. The investigation spanned 10 months, they said.
On Aug. 11, Mr. Fields prepared to leave home for the rally and received a text message in which a relative urged he be careful. Mr. Fields replied, “We’re not the ones who need to be careful,” attaching an image of Adolf Hitler, according to the indictment.
Mr. Fields arrived in Charlottesville during the early morning of Aug. 12. He joined the rally at Emancipation Park, a downtown green space with a large statue of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee.
According to the indictment, Mr. Fields later drove onto a narrow oneway street as a diverse, chanting crowd gathered at the bottom of the hill. Mr. Fields stopped, saw the counter pro testers, and ultimately accelerated his car rapidly into the group, prosecutors said.
The hate crime specification alleges Mr. Fields willfully did so because of the “race, color, religion, and national origin” of the victims. Mr. Fields already faces state charges including first-degree murder. He has been in custody since the rally. The attorney representing Mr. Fields on those counts couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.
In addition, Mr. Fields previously discussed racial supremacy on social media and in person, according to the indictment.
“On these accounts, Fields expressed and promoted his belief that white people are superior to other races and peoples; expressed support of the social and racial policies of Adolf Hitler and Nazi-era Germany, including the Holocaust; and espoused violence against African-Americans, Jewish people and members of other racial; ethnic and religious groups he perceived to be non-white,” prosecutors wrote.