Staff report
James Alex Fields Jr., 20, is now facing charges of first-degree murder after a preliminary hearing in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Fields, who grew up in Boone County, is charged in the death of Heather Heyer when he drove his Dodge Challenger into a crowd of demonstrators opposing the ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville last August.
The District Court judge upgraded the charges against Fields at a hearing attended by Fields and about two dozen of Heyer’s family and friends.
James Alex Fields, police mug shot
The event in August drew white nationalists and other far right organizations who opposed the city’s decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from Emancipation Park.
Counter-demonstrations ensued — and the environment turned deadly.
According to national news reports, prosecutors played the surveillance video from a Charlottesville restaurant in addition to a video from a Virginia State Police helicopter monitoring the events.
Authorities say the footage captures Fields’ Challenger stopping about a block and a half away from protesters, reversing, then driving into the crowd and speeding away in reverse. Fields was apprehended about four minutes after the collision, about a mile away.
The Dodge injured some three dozen others.
Fields has been in jail since his arrest.
A former high school teacher told WVXU at the time that Fields had a long fascination with Nazi Germany and was “deeply into Adolf Hitler and white supremacy.”
His case goes to a grand jury on Monday.
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See the NKyTribune’s earlier story about Boone County native James Alex Fields.
