The Daily Progress reported last week that Susan Bro, mother of Heather Heyer, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against James Alex Fields Jr., the self-proclaimed neo-Nazi responsible for Heyer’s death. Fields drove his car into a crowd of peaceful counter-protestors who demonstrated in opposition to the violent white supremacist Unite the Right rallies of Aug. 11 and 12, 2017, killing Heyer and injuring dozens of others.
Bro is suing Fields for $10 million in compensatory damages and $2 million in punitive damages. The lawsuit was filed Aug. 30 in Charlottesville Circuit Court.
“We want to show others that there are serious consequences for actions of hatred and violence,” Bro said in an interview with The Daily Progress. “This lawsuit is a way to continue to extinguish hatred.”
In July, a state court sentenced Fields to life in prison, plus 419 years and $480,000 in fines. Fields was also sentenced to life in prison without parole by a federal judge in June, after he pleaded guilty to 29 of 30 hate crime charges in March.
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