Charlottesville rally suspect charged with first-degree murder

The man accused of killing a woman by driving his car into a crowd of counterprotestors at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., has been charged with first-degree murder.

James Alex Fields is now facing 10 charges including murder in the first degree, escalated from the initial charge of second-degree murder in the Aug. 12 death of Heather Heyer.

Heyer was killed and dozens of others injured when a car plowed into the crowd at the August rally.

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A judge approved the prosecutors’ move to seek the new charge and also ruled that there was probable cause to pursue nine lesser felony counts against Fields at a preliminary hearing on Thursday.

Prosecutors showed surveillance footage, among other evidence, to back the new charge, according to reports. Prosecutors said video from a Virginia State Police helicopter and a restaurant showed Fields driving his car into the crowd.

The deadly incident took place during a white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally to oppose the removal of a Confederate statue in Charlottesville.

President Trump has come under bipartisan criticism for what many consider an insufficient condemnation of the white nationalists. Trump said there was “blame on both sides” for the violence and “some very fine people” among the activists trying to defend the statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee.