*This is a developing story.
According to the Charlottesville Police Department, street closures will accompany the hearings of white supremacist James Fields Jr., who conducted a vehicular attack against counter-protesters on August 12 during the Unite the Right rally. The incident, which left one woman dead and up to thirty wounded, was captured on camera in vivid detail and has subsequently been labeled a terrorist attack by Governor-Elect Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring.
Unite the Right, planned by UVA graduate and former Charlottesville resident Jason Kessler, was the largest gathering of white supremacists, nationalist, and alt-right groups in decades.
White Supremacists at Unite the Right. Photo by Landon Shroder
Three other men will also be arraigned in hearings today. This includes one man who discharged a firearm during the rally and two other men who have been charged in the brutal assault of DeAndre Harris, an African American man, in the Market Street Parking Garage. Police have announced that no bags or electronic devices will be allowed in the courtroom, including “cell phones.” Ambiguously, the announcement also stated, “The Charlottesville Sheriff or his deputies may also direct that other items they deem to be potentially disruptive or dangerous be left outside the courthouse.”
Fields is being charged with second-degree murder, malicious wounding, aggravated malicious wounding, felonious assault, and failure to stop – leading to death. He is not being charged with domestic terrorism, even though the attack he perpetuated was motivated by white supremacist ideology and bigotry. Reporting conducted by the Chicago Times this past summer uncovered that one of Fields’ teachers in High School claimed he had a fascination with the ideology of racial purity espoused by the Nazi Third-Reich.
