Charlottesville Victim Was Paralegal Heather Heyer
A Virginia paralegal has been identified as the woman killed in a car ramming incident at an alt-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday.
Heather Heyer, 32, a graduate of William Monroe High School in Stanardsville, Va., was a legal assistant at Miller Law Group in Charlottesville, where she focused on bankruptcy cases.
Speaking on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer said Heyer was one of three people killed Saturday.
Virginia State Police Lt. Jay Cullen and Trooper-Pilot Berke Bates were killed in a helicopter crash after the protest.
"Our hearts are grieving right now.... Three people died who didn't need to die," Signer said.
In a Facebook posting the day before the protest, Heyer wrote, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention,” quoting an anti-Trump political slogan that became popular the week after the 2016 presidential election results.
Friends remembered Heyer as fun-loving, and an outspoken opponent of racism.
“She always stands up for what she believes in and we had spoken about mixed race couples and families,” Lauren Moon, who has been friends with Heyer since third grade, told USA Today.
“Heather Heyer was murdered while protesting against hate,” Heyer’s childhood friend Felicia Correa wrote on a page set up to raise funds for Heyer’s family.
“She died doing what was right. My heart is broken, but I am forever proud of her.”
On Twitter, people paid tribute to Heyer, sharing her Facebook quote under the #HeatherHeyer hashtag. Her donations page has raised $80,000 at the time of publication.
Correa told New York Daily News that a candlelit vigil for Heyer was planned for 7pm Sunday in Charlottesville’s Emancipation Park, where alt-right protesters had gathered to protest the removal of a Confederate statue 24 hours earlier.
Heyer was among 20 people hit by the vehicle as it rammed into a crowd of counter-protesters at the rally.
James Fields Jr., 20, is the man police say was behind the wheel. Hours earlier he protested alongside members of the Vanguard America white nationalist group, according to photographs distributed by the Anti-Defamation League.
Related Articles
