Charlottesville attack: Justice Department opens hate crime investigation
US officials are investigating whether the man who rammed his car into a group of anti-racism protesters in Charlottesville acted alone.
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US POLICE are investigating whether a suspected neo-nazi accused of ramming his car into a group of protesters at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville had help planning the attack.
Fox News reports a senior Justice Department official said the department has opened a federal civil rights hate crime investigation into the attack, which killed one person and injured at least 19 others.
“The investigation is not limited to the driver. We will investigate whether others may have been involved in planning the attack,” the official said, adding that domestic terrorism charges are possible as well.
Department of Justice officials claim domestic terrorism includes criminal acts that are dangerous to human life and appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population.
“Motive often is not clear, but we have enough evidence to be suspicious that the suspect intended to send a message and not just harm immediate victims,” the official told Fox, adding that “scores” of federal officials have been helping local law enforcement.
RELATED: Charlottesville suspect ‘espoused Nazi ideals’
It’s understood the crash is being investigated jointly by the FBI, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia and the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section.
The violence and deaths in Charlottesville “strike at the heart of American law and justice,” Attorney-General Jeff Sessions said.
“When such actions arise from racial bigotry and hatred, they betray our core values and cannot be tolerated.”
Police charged James Alex Fields Jr with second-degree murder and three counts of malicious wounding. They will allege he deliberately drove his car into the crowd in what some politicians have declared an act of “domestic terrorism”.
RELATED: Trump condemned for silence over white supremacist ‘terrorism
The impact hurled people into the air and blew off their shoes. Heather Heyer, 32, was killed as she crossed the street.
VIRGINIA SUSPECT PART OF NEO-NAZI RALLY
Fields, the accused attacker, was photographed the morning of the incident holding a shield with the emblem of a white supremacist group.
Vanguard America denies that he is a member of its group and says it handed out shields to anyone in attendance who wanted them.
The Anti-Defamation League says Vanguard America believes the US is an exclusively white nation, and uses propaganda to recruit young white men online and on college campuses.
Relatives of Fields told The Washington Post that Fields grew up mostly in Northern Kentucky, and had been raised by a single mother who was a paraplegic.
“Not really friendly,” an uncle told the paper of Fields. “More subdued.”
His former high school history teacher described Field as someone “infatuated” by the Nazis.
“He was very infatuated with the Nazis, with Adolf Hitler,” Derek Weimer told Cincinnati’s WCPO news channel.
Mr Weimer said as a student Fields had a big interest in history, “especially with German military history and World War II. But, he was pretty infatuated with that stuff.”
MUM: ‘I THOUGHT HE WAS AT A TRUMP RALLY’
His mother, meanwhile, said she believed her son was attending a rally for US President Donald Trump, not for white nationalists.
Samantha Bloom said: “I just knew he was going to a rally. I mean, I try to stay out of his political views. You know, we don’t, I don’t really get too involved, I moved him out to his own apartment, so I’m watching his cat.”
After being told that the rally was organised by white nationalists Ms Bloom told the Associated Press: “I thought it had something to do with Trump. Trump’s not a white supremacist.”
Originally published as Charlottesville attack: Justice Department opens hate crime investigation
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