Gone but not forgotten,” a sign above Charlottesville’s Paramount Theater read on Wednesday, an homage Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old paralegal killed over the weekend during the violence that engulfed this city.
Inside the theater, hundreds came together ― many dressed in purple, Heyer’s favorite color ― to honor her memory. Photos of Heyer flashed on the screen ― posing with friends, on the beach, out to dinner, holding a baby.
Kathy Brinkley, a close friend of Heyer’s mother, said the young woman “lost her life defending the lives of people.” Heyer’s grandfather, Elwood Shrader, recalled that Heyer had a passion for justice at an early age, calling out inequalities wherever she saw them.
“She always had a very strong sense of right and wrong. She always, even as a child, was very caught up in what she believed to be fair,” her mother, Susan Bro, told HuffPost in an exclusive interview on Sunday. “Somehow I almost feel that this is what she was born to be, is a focal point for change. I’m proud that what she was doing was peaceful. She wasn’t there fighting with people.”
White supremacists and members of the alt-right had planned a “Unite The Right” rally Saturday to protest the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue in downtown Charlottesville. They clashed with counter-protesters throughout the weekend. James Alex Fields, Jr., a 20-year-old Nazi sympathizer, rammed a car through the crowds, killing Heyer. He has been charged with second-degree murder.
Two state troopers also died after their helicopter ― which was patrolling during the violence ― crashed nearby.
Source: Hundreds Gather In Charlottesville To Honor Heather Heyer | HuffPost
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