Driver accused of plowing into crowd at Charlottesville rally charged with federal hate crimes

Doug Stanglin | USA TODAY

A federal grand jury in Virginia indicted an Ohio man Wednesday with federal hate crimes in the death of a woman run down by a car after a "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville last summer.

James Alex Fields Jr., 21, of Maumee, Ohio, had already been charged in state court in connection with the death of Heather Heyer for allegedly ramming his car into a group of counter-protesters.

Heyer was killed the last day of the August weekend rally organized by white supremacists and their sympathizers protesting the removal of Robert E. Lee's statue from a Charlottesville park. The highly publicized event drew supporters and counter-protesters to the university town in central Virginia.

Fields was indicted on one federal count of a hate crime resulting in Heyer's death, 28 counts of hate crimes for causing bodily injury and involving an attempt to kill and one count of racially motivated violent interference with a federally protected activity.

The grand jury was sitting in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Charlottesville.

In announcing the indictment, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said his department has determined that "hateful ideologies will not have the last word and their adherents will not get away with violent crimes against those they target."

Sessions said the indictment "should send a clear message to every would-be criminal in America that we aggressively prosecute violent crimes of hate that threaten the core principles of our nation."

According to the indictment, Fields traveled to Charlottesville to participate in the rally that was widely publicized on social media as associated with white supremacist individuals and other far-right groups.

After authorities declared the event an "unlawful assembly," Fields left the area, but returned in his car as crowds drifted away from the site of the rally, the indictment charged. He then encountered a group of counter-protesters who were chanting and carrying signs promoting equality and protesting against racial discrimination.

The indictment alleged that Fields slowly backed up his car in a downtown street then rapidly accelerated, ran through a stop sign and across a raised pedestrian mall, and drove directly into the crowd, hitting numerous individuals, killing Heyer, and injuring many others. He then fled the scene.

In January, Fields was charged by a state court with first-degree murder among other crimes for which he will be tried in November.

Shortly after the incident, President Donald Trump weighed in. "I think there is blame on both sides," Trump told reporters.

"What about the 'alt-left' that came charging at, as you say, the 'alt-right,' do they have any semblance of guilt?" Trump asked. "What about the fact they came charging with clubs in hands, swinging clubs, do they have any problem? I think they do."

"You had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. Nobody wants to say it, but I will say it right now," Trump added.