Car Attack Suspect Faces Murder Charge, Civil Rights Probe
(CBSNEWS) - The man suspected of ramming a car into a crowd of counter demonstrators at a white-nationalist rally, killing one and injuring more than a dozen others, was facing multiple charges on Sunday morning, including second-degree murder.
Video of the incident in Charlottesville, Virginia, shows the car appearing to plow deliberately at a high rate of speed over multiple counter-protesters at the rally.
Heather D. Heyer, 32, a Charlottesville resident who police say was crossing the road at the time, died of her injuries after being rushed to the hospital.
A spokesperson for University of Virginia Medical Center said early Sunday morning that the hospital was still treating five victims of the incident in critical condition, four in serious and another ten in fair or good condition.
On Saturday night, the FBI and federal prosecutors announced that a civil rights investigation had been opened into the vehicular death allegedly caused by James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Maumee, Ohio.
Fields is being held without bail on second-degree murder, malicious wounding and failure to stop at the scene of an accident that resulted in a death, officials said. The civil rights investigation raises the prospect of other charges being filed in the coming days as the investigation continues.
Video of the incident showed a grey Dodge Charger plowing into counter-protesters who were marching through the city's shopping district. The force of the collision hurled several people into the air. Bystanders could be seen running in every direction while others stood by screaming for help.