James Fields, Ohio Resident, Accused Of Plowing Into Crowd At Virginia White Nationalist Rally

MAUMEE, OH — A 20-year-old Ohio man has been charged after he allegedly plowed into a crowd of protesters at the site of a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday, leaving a 32-year-old woman dead, police said.

The man was identified as James Alex Fields Jr. Officials in Charlottesville only identified him as an Ohio resident, however the Washington Post reported that Fields last lived in Maumee, Ohio, a suburb of Toledo. Fields' high school history teacher was quoted by the Washington Post as saying that the 20-year-old man espoused Nazi ideology.

Cincinnati.com reported earlier Saturday that the car involved in the fatal crash was last registered in Ohio, citing online records. The Washington Post reported that the car was registered to Fields. (For updates on this story and more local news, subscribe to the Toledo Patch.)

The Cincinnati.com report says the Dodge Challenger was purchased in Florence, Kentucky in June 2015 and the title for the car was updated the next month in Maumee. The license plate number can be seen in photos taken by The Daily Progress, a local paper in Charlottesville.

Fields is charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and one count of hit-and-run attended failure to stop with injury.

The Cincinnati.com report notes that the vehicle was not listed as stolen.

Fields' mother, Samantha Bloom, told The Toledo Blade that her son had told her Friday that he was going to an "alt-right" rally in Virginia on Saturday. Bloom said she told her son to be careful and she didn't know about the extremist nature of the rally.

“I thought it had something to do with Trump,” she told the Blade.

>>>Click here to read Patch's full coverage of the events in Charlottesville.

Photo: The car that allegedly plowed through a crowd of protestors marching through a downtown shopping district is seen after the vehicle was stopped by police several blocks away August 12, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images News/Getty Images