In the wake of the violence and death during the Charlottesville rallies where white supremacists and counter-demonstrators clashed, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) called on the Justice Department to investigate the death of a counter-protester as an act of domestic terrorism.
“The Nazis, the KKK, and white supremacists are repulsive and evil, and all of us have a moral obligation to speak out against the lies, bigotry, ant-semitism, and hatred that they propagate,” Cruz said in a statement.
“Having watched the horrifying video of the car deliberately crashing into a crowd of protesters, I urge the Department of Justice to immediately investigate and prosecute this grotesque act of domestic terrorism,” he continued.
Cruz if referring to the death of the Heather Heyer, who was killed when Alt-Right rally attendee James Alex-Fields Jr. slammed into her with his vehicle. Police are calling the killing premeditated.
Here's the killer, James Alex Fields, Jr. (left) at the Unite the Right rally earlier that day, before he mowed down Heather Heyer. pic.twitter.com/B13wbuGNvD
— Jay Kuo (@nycjayjay) August 13, 2017
https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/896569821386731520
White nationalist, white supremacist and alt-right groups initially planned to gather in Charlottesville’s Emancipation Park Saturday to protest the city’s removal of a Confederate monument. But as soon as violence broke out at the “Unite the Right” rally, police declared the gathering an unlawful assembly and broke it up before it began.
After the rally-goers and counter protesters dispersed, Fields accelerated his vehicle down a street towards a large throng of counter-protesters and slammed into cars and people nearby, killing Heyer and injuring dozens of others.
Featured image via Gage Skidmore