James Alex Fields Jr.

A 2010 Dodge Challenger drove down Fourth Street Southeast mall crossing and idled for a short time behind the Toyota at the Downtown Mall.

It then backed up and traveled more than a block before rapidly accelerating forward.

The Charlottesville car attack was a white supremacist terrorist attack perpetrated on August 12, 2017, when James Alex Fields Jr. deliberately drove his car into a crowd of people peacefully protesting the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing one person and injuring 35.

Fields, 20, had previously espoused neo-Nazi and white supremacist beliefs, and drove from Ohio to attend the rally.

Fields' attack was called an act of domestic terrorism by the mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia's public safety secretary, the U.S. attorney general, and the director of the FBI.

Fields was convicted in a state court of the first-degree murder of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, eight counts of malicious wounding, and hit and run.

He also pled guilty to 29 of 30 federal hate crime charges to avoid the death penalty.

He was sentenced to life in prison plus 419 years for the state charges, with an additional life sentence for the federal charges.

The Unite the Right rally was a white supremacist rally that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia from August 11 to 12, 2017.

Jason Kessler, the organizer of the rally, had been protesting for months against the proposed removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Emancipation Park in Charlottesville.

The August rally had been preceded by a Ku Klux Klan rally in Charlottesville on July 8, 2017.

That motivated many concerned local residents to ally with activist protesters against the white supremacists' rally the next month.

Individuals and groups of different beliefs and tactics participated in a demonstration against the rally.

Many counter-protesters turned out despite the potential threat of violence.

Protesters and some militant counter-protesters attacked each other.

According to a police report, on August 12, 2017, "A school resource officer stationed at the intersection of 4th Street NE and Market Street was reassigned," after she radioed for assistance following violent skirmishes' breaking out causing her to feel unsafe." However, she wasn't replaced leaving the intersection without a police presence.

According to the report, "unknown persons" displaced a sawhorse barricade set up to block traffic from moving down 4th Street South-East, away from the Downtown Mall toward East Water Street.

They were impeded by a large group of counter-protesters who walked up Fourth Street Southeast towards Market Street.

A Honda Odyssey and a Toyota Camry behind it were driving down the Fourth Street Southeast crossing.

At around 1:45 p.m. on August 12, 2017, the Dodge Challenger, driven by Fields, drove at high speed into a crowd of counter-protesters.

A police crash reconstructionist estimated the speed at 23 –.

The car audibly rammed pedestrians and struck a white sedan stopped in the street, accelerating the sedan to 17.1 mph. The impact reportedly sent people "flying through the air" over another car near the intersection of Fourth and Water streets.

The struck vehicle also hit the maroon minivan ahead, "sending that vehicle into more pedestrians".

Seconds after the initial impact, Fields drove in reverse, striking more people, with his car's front bumper scraping the road.

Pedestrians who had avoided the attack chased Fields along Fourth Street.

Fields backed up at a high speed for several blocks, and then turned left and sped off down Market Street.

A Virginia State Police Bell 407 helicopter, which crashed about three hours later, followed the car and relayed its route to ground units.

A deputy stopped and arrested Fields on Monticello Avenue, about 1 mi from the attack.

The deputy waited for backup to arrive, and detective Steven Young came from the police department.

According to Young, Fields kept apologizing and asked if anyone was injured.

When Young told him that a person had died, Fields appeared shocked and started to cry.

Young said that the Dodge had holes in the rear window and heavy front-end damage; Young said that the car was "splattered" with blood and flesh.

A pair of blue sunglasses was stuck in the spoiler on the car's trunk.

Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old woman, was fatally injured in the attack, and died at the University of Virginia Medical Center.

Initially, 19 injuries were reported, as 20 patients were taken at the University of Virginia Medical Center.

In the evening, five people were in critical condition and 14 others were being treated for lesser injuries.

Nine people had been discharged and ten remained hospitalized in good condition the next day.

Testimony at the preliminary hearing in December 2017 revealed that a total of 35 people were injured.

The organizer of the Unite the Right rally, Jason Kessler, held a news conference near the Charlottesville City Hall the day after the car attack.

A crowd of around 100 counter-protesters shouted him down, screaming "murderer."