Charlottesville Crash Driver & State Troopers Killed In Helicopter Identified – UPDATE
UPDATED with arrest & casualty info Virginia officials confirmed that 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr. of Maumee, Ohio, was arrested and has been booked on suspicion of second-degree murder, malicious wounding and failure to stop for an accident involving a death.(See his mug shot below). Fields’ booking was confirmed by Superintendent Martin Kumer with the Albermarle-Charlottesville County Regional Jail.
Three people died as a result of today’s violent clashes in Charlottesville, including one killed in what appeared to be Fields’ intentional car crash and two state troopers who died in a helicopter accident.
The troopers, Lieutenant H. Jay Cullen, 48, of Midlothian, Va. (above left) and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates of Quinton, Va. (above right) are being considered casualties of the violence since they were on duty, monitoring the Charlottesville protests from the helicopter.
In a press conference confirming the three deaths, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe made the clear, anti-white-nationalist message that President Donald Trump did not. “I have a message to the white supremacists and the nazis who came into Charlottesville today,” McAuliffe said at the televised 6 pm conference. “Go home. You are not wanted in this great commonwealth. You pretend that you are patriots, but you are anything but patriots.”
Two of the deaths were the result of a Virginia State Police helicopter crash in nearby Albemarle County; the third death was a pedestrian killed in what police consider an intentional car crash. The connection of the helicopter accident to the violence was not immediately clarified.
President Donald Trump has tweeted his condolences to the “families & fellow officers of the VA State Police who died today” and to the pedestrian’s family, wishing “best regards to all of those injured.”
Condolences to the family of the young woman killed today, and best regards to all of those injured, in Charlottesville, Virginia. So sad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017
Deepest condolences to the families & fellow officers of the VA State Police who died today. You're all among the best this nation produces.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017
Said McAuliffe to white nationalists during his presser, “You came here today to hurt people. There is no place for you here, there is no place for you in America.”
“So please, go home and never come back,” he said. “Take your hatred and take your bigotry, there is no place.”
At the same press conference, Charlottesville mayor Michael Signer said the bigotry was brought to his city by “outsiders” who “belong on the trash heap of history.”
Charlottesville police chief Al Thomas confirmed the three deaths, noting that none of 35 injuries were attributable to engagement with law enforcement. Nine pedestrians were injured in the car crash, with injuries ranging from minor to life-threatening.
A 32-year-old female pedestrian was killed in the crash; Thomas declined to identify the victim pending family notification.
A male suspect has been arrested in the death, and Thomas said the incident is being treated as a criminal homicide.
CBS News tweeted a photo from near the helicopter crash site:
NEW: 2 confirmed fatalities in helicopter crash outside Charlottesville, Virginia, state police say https://t.co/5UYLHG2ndC pic.twitter.com/MC6dRdSerO
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 12, 2017
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