• Heather Heyer, Charlottesville victim, called ‘a strong woman,’
Heather Heyer died standing up for what she believed in.
Friends described her as a passionate advocate for the disenfranchised who was often moved to tears by the world’s injustices. That sense of conviction led her to join demonstrators protesting a rally of white nationalists in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday.
“We were just marching around, spreading love — and then the accident happened,” a friend, Marissa Blair, said.
The authorities said Ms. Heyer, 32, was killed when a car driven by a man from Ohio plowed into the crowd.
“Heather was such a sweet soul, and she did not deserve to die,” Ms. Blair said on Sunday.
Others said Ms. Heyer, who lived in Charlottesville, spoke out against inequality and urged coworkers to be active in their community.
“Heather was a very strong woman,” said Alfred Wilson, manager of the bankruptcy division at the Miller Law Group in Charlottesville, where Ms. Heyer worked as a paralegal. She stood up against “any type of discrimination,” he said.
A couple of years ago, she was dating someone who became agitated after learning that Mr. Wilson was black and that they were friends.
“She just didn’t like the way he was judging me as a minority male that’s doing well for myself,” Mr. Wilson said, adding that Ms. Heyer stopped seeing the man after that.
Mr. Wilson hired Ms. Heyer at the recommendation of a friend. She had a high school diploma but did not have a background in law.
“If you can get people to open up to you, that’s what I need,” he told her. “I’ll teach you everything about the law you need to know.”
Ms. Heyer and her friends were walking together at the protest when a car crashed into the crowd.
James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Maumee, Ohio, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and failing to stop at the scene of a crash that resulted in a death, the police said.
A GoFundMe campaign created to support Ms. Heyer’s family had surpassed $200,000 as of Sunday evening.