User:Mpetersen9825/Charlottesville car attack

On August 12, 2017, a car was deliberately driven into a crowd of people who had been peacefully protesting the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing one person and injuring 28 others. The driver of the car, 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr., had driven from Ohio to attend the rally. Fields previously espoused neo-Nazi and white supremacist beliefs. He was convicted in a state court for hit and run, the first-degree murder of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, along with eight counts of malicious wounding. Fields was sentenced to life in prison with an additional 419 years in July 2019. The Mayor of Charlottesville, the Virginia Secretary of Public Safety, the Attorney General and the FBI director called the attack an act of domestic terrorism.

The Unite the Right rally in the summer of 2017 brought hundreds of protesters to Charlottesville, Virginia and was the largest public assembly of white supremacists in decades. Many protesters in the rally carried firearms and protective gear leading to many violent conflicts. The murder of Heather Heyer and the Unite the Right rally represent the growing bipartisanism in American society and escalating tensions and conflicts between the 'Alt-Right' and the 'Left' political movements.