Though there is much more to learn about the lone victim—identified by family and friends on Sunday as Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal from Virginia—who lost her life in the vicious attack in Charlottesville on a group of anti-racist demonstrators, the last public message she left behind offered at least a semblance of what inspired her to march against hate on Saturday: “If you not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”
“Heather was not about hate, Heather was about stopping hatred. Heather was about bringing an end to injustice.” —Susan Bro, victim’s motherThe well-worn but still evocative saying is the banner image on Heyer’s public Facebook page, receiving increased attention since her horrific death on Saturday afternoon when an individual—the police have arrested and charged 20-year-old James Fields Jr. with murder—intentionally slammed a car into people protesting a rally by neo-Nazi and white supremacists in the city.
On a GoFundMe page, established with the apparent blessing of Heyer’s family, a friend wrote, “Heather Heyer was murdered while protesting against hate. She is a Greene County native and Graduated from William Monroe High School. Her mother […] said ‘She died doing what was right. My heart is broken, but I am forever proud of her’.” The page—which had set a $50,000 goal—had already surpassed that amount as of this writing.
It appears Heyer updated her cover photo with the message just days after President Donald Trump was elected in November.
In an interview with the Huffington Post published Sunday afternoon, Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, said she was “proud” of her daughter “who always had a very strong sense of right and wrong.” Even as a child, said Bro, she “was very caught up in what she believed to be fair.”
She added, “Somehow I almost feel that this is what she was born to be, is a focal point for change. I’m proud that what she was doing was peaceful, she wasn’t there fighting with people.”
In reporting on Sunday, it was shown that Fields, the alleged attacker, was at the gathering of white supremacists with a neo-Nazi group called Vanguard America.
According to the Guardian:
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