The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
Staff Reports
Posted: Sunday, January 21, 2018 11:22 AM
Victim Of Charlottesville Riots Identified As 32-Year Old Heather Heyer
A Dodge Challenger rammed into a group of protesters as tension boiled over at a white supremacist rally on Saturday. Heyer, 32, was killed as she crossed the street.
Heyer was taken to UVA Hospital, where she was declared dead, according to a Charlottesville press release.
White nationalists descended on the city to "take America back" by rallying against plans to remove a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee.
Hundreds came to protest against the racism. The Daily News reported that it was not clear whether Heyer was with the demonstrators counter-protesting.
Heyer’s cover photo on Facebook from November 19, 2016, says, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”
Heyer was a paralegal with the Miller Law Group, according to the newspaper.
“For over four years Heather has played an essential role in our bankruptcy department and office as a whole,” the law group says online. It says that Heyer was from Ruckersville, Va., but living in Charlottesville.
“She died doing
what was right. My heart is broken, but I am forever proud of her,”
Felicia Correa, Heyer's childhood pal who spoke on behalf of the
victim’s mother, told the Daily News.
Heyer graduated from William Monroe High School in Stanardsville, Va.,
in 2003, USA Today reported.
“She always stands up for what she believes in and we had spoken about
mixed race couples and families,” her friend Lauren Moon told the news
outlet.
The driver, James Alex Fields Jr., a 20-year-old who recently moved to
Ohio from where he grew up in Kentucky, was charged with second-degree
murder and other counts.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
