CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A judge has denied bond for an Ohio man accused of plowing his car into a crowd at a white nationalist rally.
This article has been edited from an earlier version to include new developments.
Judge Robert Downer said during a bond hearing Monday he would appoint a lawyer for James Alex Fields Jr.
Meanwhile, the victim of the car crash is being remembered as a woman who cared about others and politicians from both parties continue to criticize President Donald Trump for his tepid response to the violence.
Fields has been in custody since Saturday. Jail officials told The Associated Press they don’t know if he’s obtained an attorney.
A high school teacher said Fields was fascinated with Nazism, idolized Adolf Hitler and had been singled out by school officials in the 9th grade for his “deeply held, radical” convictions on race.
Fields was photographed Saturday morning holding a shield with the emblem of a white supremacist group.
Vanguard America denies that James Alex Fields Jr. 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 U.S. is an exclusively white nation, and uses propaganda to recruit young white men online and on college campuses.
A close friend of the woman who was killed when a car plowed into peaceful protesters in Charlottesville says she cared about people and stood up for equality.
Marissa Blair said Sunday night at a vigil where the crash happened that Heather Heyer’s death was “an act of terror.” She says it’s a hate crime and should be treated as such.
Blair says she was with Heyer when the crash happened. She says the driver “barreled down,” and she could hear the wheels as he accelerated. She says the driver “deserves everything he gets and more.”
Vice President Mike Pence is responding to the violence, saying “these dangerous fringe groups” have no place in American public life.
Pence was asked about the violent clashes this weekend in the Virginia college town as he spoke Sunday during a news conference in Cartagena, Colombia.
Both Republicans and Democrats have criticized President Donald Trump’s initial remarks about the violence in Charlottesville. Trump did not single out any group but blamed “many sides” for the violence.
On Sunday, Pence said, “We have no tolerance for hate and violence, white supremacists or neo-Nazis or the KKK.”
Following his remarks about such fringe groups, Pence added, “We condemn them in the strongest possible terms.”