CHARLOTTESVILLE, VI : White nationalist rally linked to 3 deaths on August, Saturday 12th 2017

A car plowed into a crowd of people peacefully protesting a white nationalist rally Saturday in a Virginia college town, killing one person, sending at least 19 others to hospitals and ratcheting up tension in an increasingly violent confrontation.

CNN reports the suspect being held in a Virginia jail in connection with a deadly crash near a scheduled rally of white nationalists has been identified as James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Maumee, Ohio, according to Superintendent Martin Kumer with the Albermarle-Charlottesville County Regional Jail.

The Toledo Blade reports it talked to Fields' mother, Samantha Bloom.

In the interview, the Blade said Fields told his mother on Friday he was heading to an "alt-right" rally in Virginia, but didn't tell her "the extremist nature" of the rally.

Bloom told the Blade they moved to northwest Ohio from Florence, Kentucky a year ago for her job.

Fields is being held on suspicion of second-degree murder, malicious wounding and failure to stop in an accident that resulted in death. A bond hearing is scheduled for Monday.

Heather Heyer, 32, was killed as she crossed the street. She was among the hundreds of protesters who had gathered in Charlottesville to denounce the rally.

City officials say 35 patients were treated altogether, 19 of whom were injured in the car crash.

Shortly after the incident, a Virginia State Police helicopter that officials said was assisting with the rally crashed outside Charlottesville, killing the pilot and a trooper.

Corinne Geller, a Virginia State Police spokeswoman, says the pilot and a passenger were killed in the crash Saturday afternoon.

Virginia State Police said Saturday that the helicopter crashed in a wooded area near a home. No one on the ground was injured. Police said they are investigating the cause of the crash.

The chaos boiled over at what is believed to be the largest group of white nationalists to come together in a decade: the governor declared a state of emergency, police dressed in riot gear ordered people out and helicopters circled overhead. The group had gathered to protest plans to remove a statue of the Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, and others who arrived to protest the racism.

The Governor of Virginia held a press conference with other state officials after the violence in Charlottesville on Saturday


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White nationalist rally linked to 3 deaths