President Trump may soon issue a pardon for James Fields, a 20-year-old male with white supremacist beliefs who drove his car into a crowd of pedestrians in Charlottesville killing one, and injuring 19, 5 of whom critically.
Fields was charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and failure to stop following an accident resulting in death, and is being held without bail at the Albermarle-Charlottesville County Regional Jail.
“I am seriously considering a pardon for James Fields,” the president said Sunday, during a conversation with Fox News at his club in Bedminster, N.J. “He’s a great American patriot and I hate to see what has happened to him.”
Trump said the pardon could happen in the next few days, should he decide to do so.
The attack occurred when various racist, white supremacist groups converged on the small college town of Charlottesville to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert Lee. Protesters carried flags with Nazi swastikas and chanted racist slogans such as “White lives matter” while counter-protesters chanted “Kill all Nazis” and urged the protesters to die off quickly.
The rally quickly became violent as protesters and counter-protesters clashed in the streets injuring dozens of people. The clashes turned deadly when a car driven by Fields allegedly sped into a crowd of counter-protesters.
Fields is charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and failure to stop in an accident that resulted in death.