Driver Of Car That Killed Counter-Protester IDed As James Alex Fields Jr.

The driver of the Challenger, James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Ohio, was arrested and charged with one count of second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and one count of hit-and-run attended failure to stop with injury, police said. He is being held without bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Monday, Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail Superintendent Martin Kumer said. Police made three other arrests in connection with violence earlier in the day, charging them with assault and battery, disorderly conduct and carrying a concealed weapon.

Records show Fields last lived in Maumee, Ohio, about 15 miles southwest of Toledo.

Fields’s father was killed by a drunk driver a few months before the boy’s birth, according to an uncle who spoke on the condition of anonymity. His father left him money that the uncle kept in a trust until Fields reached adulthood.

“When he turned 18, he demanded his money, and that was the last I had any contact with him,” the uncle said.

Fields, he said, grew up mostly in Northern Kentucky, where he’d been raised by a single mother who was a paraplegic. The uncle, who saw Fields mostly at family gatherings, described his nephew as “not really friendly, more subdued.”

He wouldn’t comment on his reaction to the charges against Fields.

“I really don’t want to get into that,” he said. “I’m not going to slam my nephew or anybody in my family without knowing what the h--- happened.”

Samantha Bloom, Mr. Fields’ mother, told a Blade reporter her son texted her Friday to say he had dropped his cat off at her Monclova Township apartment so he could go to an “alt-right” rally in Virginia.

“I told him to be careful,” Ms. Bloom said. “[And] if they’re going to rally to make sure he’s doing it peacefully.”

It didn’t appear that happened, she said tearfully.

She had returned from dinner Saturday evening unaware that her son was involved and had not yet been contacted by authorities.

He had told her about the rally last week, but didn’t offer details about its extremist nature.

“I thought it had something to do with Trump,” she said.

She said he had moved out of her apartment “five or six months ago” to his own Maumee apartment, but she declined to give the address. Ms. Bloom said they moved to northwest Ohio from Florence, Kentucky, about a year ago for her job.

Clash between protesters and counter protesters. Police says "We'll not intervene until given command to do so." #Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/UkRDlNn2mv

— ACLU of Virginia (@ACLUVA) August 12, 2017