James Fields, 20 years old man from Ohio is currently charged with murder and in police custody after he rammed a car into counter-protesters peacefully protesting at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing one person and injuring another 19.
The police have confirmed that James ramming the vehicle into the crowds has killed a 32 year old woman, but the police are trying to get more details before talking to her family.
Col Martin Kumer, the superintendent of the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail while speaking about the incident said;
He has been charged with second degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and failing to stop at an accident that resulted in a death.
The FBI has also got involved in the accident in Charlottesville and have opened a civil rights investigation along with the Justice Department’s civil rights division and the district attorney’s office.
The mother of the alleged murderer while speaking to Associated Press on Saturday night said she knew her child was attending a rally that has to do with the US president, Donald Trump, and she never thought he was attending a white supremacist rally. She said;
I thought it had something to do with Trump. Trump’s not a white supremacist.
The attack happened after the police had cleared the Emancipation Park where there is the statue Robert E Lee, the statue that the city decided to be removed, and have since drawn attention from the alt-right groups and the Ku Klux Klan..
After a good fight between the far-right and counter protesters, there was a stalemate, and the far-right groups, then moved to another park 2 miles away from the park of the riot to attend the “Unite the Right” event that they had scheduled before the counter protest.
The speaker was the Far-right and White Nationalist leader, Richard Spencer, who said that the group will not back down on protesting against the statue removal by the city.
Robert E Lee Statue Controversy
The city of Charlottesville in February voted to remove the Robert E Lee statue from the park, and also rename the park to Emancipation Park, this was after a campaign by local high school student, Zyahna Bryant.
This also started after a White supremacist, Dylann Roof murdered nine African Americans in a church in Charleston, South Carolina.
It was said that confederate flags and monuments across the South be removed after the massacre by Dylan Roof,and after the city voted for the Robert Lee status be removed, White Nationalist leader, Richard Spencer led a torchlight parade around the park, and on 8 of July, around 50 members of the Ku Klux Klan held another rally at the park.
The KKK during their rally at the park were met with resistance from protesters, and police intervened, arresting 23 people.
President Donald Trump Stance
The president has come under attack after his speech, where he said that the country must stay united, as there has been "display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides.”.
The president use of the "many sides" have caused an uproar both from Republicans and Democrats at the congress that believes the president should have called out the word "White supremacist" and condemn the group, instead of trying to cast a wide net on the protest.
One Republican going against Trump is Marco Rubio, tweeting that the president should describe the events as a “terror attack by white supremacists”.