The Ohio man accused of killing 28-year-old Heather Heyer by plowing his car into a crowd of protesters at the so-called Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville last August was indicted Wednesday by a Virginia grand jury on federal hate-crime charges.
James Fields Jr., 21, struck and killed Heyer after driving his car into a crowd of counter-protesters voicing their opposition to the hundreds of white nationalists who descended on Charlottesville to "defend" a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. from removal.
Fields was indicted on one count of a hate crime resulting in Heyer’s death, as well as 28 counts of hate crimes causing great bodily harm in an attempt to kill and one count of racially motivated violent interference with a federally protected activity.
"Last summer’s violence in Charlottesville cut short a promising young life and shocked the nation," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. "Today’s 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."
The clash between white nationalists and counter-protesters sparked a national controversy after President Trump appeared to critics to paint the white nationalists in a sympathetic light by suggesting there were "some very fine people on both sides."
Fields, who was described by a former teacher as having a preoccupation with Nazism, was photographed hours before the killing with a shield bearing the emblem of Vanguard America, a leading white-nationalist hate group. He is already facing a first-degree murder charge at the state level and has been in custody since the rally.
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