Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a statement late Saturday decrying the “violence and deaths in Charlottesville,” and saying the FBI and the Justice Department is investigating what local authorities are calling the murder of a 32-year-old woman protester.

The woman was run over when a car rammed into a group of predominantly anti-supremacist protesters; driver James Alex Fields, Jr. is in custody and charged with murder.

“When such actions arise from racial bigotry and hatred, they betray our core values and cannot be tolerated,” Sessions said in a press statement.

“I have talked with FBI Director Chris Wray, FBI agents on the scene, and law enforcement officials for the state of Virginia.

“The FBI has been supporting state and local authorities throughout the day. U.S. Attorney Rick Mountcastle has commenced a federal investigation and will have the full support of the Department of Justice,” Sessions’ statement read, concluding, “Justice will prevail.”

Also Saturday night, the US States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia and the Richmond Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a joint statement calling their probe a “civil rights investigation.”

“The Richmond FBI Field Office, the Civil Rights Division, and the US 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,” the statement said.

“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.”