The man accused of murdering a woman by deliberately driving into her during protests against a far-right rally was photographed earlier in the day standing with the white supremacist, neo-Nazi group Vanguard America. 
 
 James Fields, 20, of Maumee, Ohio, allegedly killed Heather Heyer, aged 32, and injured 19 others when he rammed his car into a group peacefully protesting on Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia. 
 
 Photographs from earlier that day appear to show Fields rallying with Vanguard America and carrying a shield bearing the group’s insignia. He wears the white polo shirt and khaki pants that are the group’s uniform. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest James Fields. Photograph: Albemarle-Charlottesville regional jail/EPA 
 
 Vanguard America were a highly visible presence at the Unite the Right rally on Saturday, where they marched in military-style formation, and the torchlight rally the previous night on the University of Virginia campus. On the group’s Twitter account, and on social media accounts belonging to regional chapters, there was extensive promotion of the Unite the Right rally in the weeks leading up to the event. 
 
 The group’s motto, “blood and soil” was a popular chant at both events. It is derived from the Nazi slogan “blut und boden”, which links conceptions of racial purity with a particular national territory. 
 
 
 
 Col Martin Kumer, the superintendent of Albemarle-Charlottesville regional jail, told the Guardian that Fields had been charged with second degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and failing to stop at an accident that resulted in a death. 
 
 Witnesses said those hit by the car were peacefully protesting against the white supremacist rally and footage showed the vehicle crashing into another car, throwing people over the top of it. The incident with the car left 19 people injured, five critically. 
 
 
 
 Fields was one of four people who have been arrested over the violence on Saturday which included fighting and skirmishing between far-right protesters and counter-protesters. 
 
 Virginia police have not yet provided a motive for the attack using the vehicle but an Federal Bureau of Investigation field office said US attorneys and the FBI had opened a civil rights investigation into the crash. 
 
 The mother of Fields told the Associated Press on Saturday night that she knew her son was attending a rally in Virginia but did not know it was a white supremacist rally. 
 
 “I thought it had something to do with Trump. Trump’s not a white supremacist,” Samantha Bloom said, before becoming visibly upset as she learned of the injuries and deaths. “He had an African-American friend so ...,” she said before her voice trailed off. 
 
 Fields had lived with his mother, reportedly a paraplegic, until around five or six months ago, the two of them having moved to Maumee from Florence, Kentucky, about a year ago for Bloom’s work. 
 
 Neighbours of Bloom told a reporter from the Toledo Blade newspaper that they knew little about the 20-year-old although one resident, Laurie Schoonmaker, recalled that Fields often blasted polka music from his car when he was there. She had not seen him in months, she added. 
 
 According to an uncle who spoke to the Washington Post, Fields’ father was killed by a drunk driver only a few months before the boy was born. His father left him money which the uncle kept in a trust. 
 
 “When he turned 18, he demanded his money and that was the last I had any contact with him,” said the uncle, who spoke on condition of anonymity, adding that his nephew was “not really friendly, more subdued” when they met at family gatherings. 
 
 Fields’ now deactivated Facebook page contained Nazi imagery including a photograph of Hitler as a baby, a picture of the Reichstag in Berlin, and a photograph of him posing with his car, the New York Daily News reported. 
 
 Derek Weimer, who taught Fields history when he was a student at Cooper high school in Union, Kentucky, told the TV station WCPO that he remembered a boy who was “very quiet and very bright,” but one who believed in white supremacy and the Nazi ideology. 
 
 Military records appear to show that Fields served in the US army between August and December 2015. 
 
 Weimer said he recalled Fields had wanted to join the army after graduating but had been turned down because the teenager had been prescribed medicine for a psychotic disorder. “When you bring that in to the picture, and you bring the views, and you bring in the views of Nazism and white supremacism... you start to see it is like a perfect storm.” 
 
 American Fascism 
 
 Vanguard America’s manifesto, American Fascism, details its desire for a white ethnostate, the restoration of strictly patriarchal families and limiting the influence of “international Jews”. 
 
 Of Vanguard America, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) says the group “is particularly focused on recruiting young men and has engaged in unprecedented outreach efforts to attract students on American college campuses”. Its leader, military veteran Dillon Irizarry, has said “the future is the youth”. 
 
 During the 2016-2017 school year, chapters were active in posting flyers on college campuses in 10 states, from Arkansas to Oregon. On the group’s website, printable flyers bear slogans including “Beware the International Jew”, “Imagine a Muslim-Free America”, and “Fascism: The Next Step for America”. 
 
 According to the ADL, the group claims 200 members in 20 states, and has paramilitary tendencies. Members have carried firearms at events in open carry states. 
 
 Donald Trump under fire after failing to denounce Virginia white supremacists Read more 
 
 Leader Irizarry claims the group started in California. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the group split from “alt right” group American Vanguard. This group in turn arose from the neo-Nazi “Iron March” web forum. Other users of that forum have been involved in alleged violence: in May, Devon Arthurs, who had been active on the forum, was arrested for the murder of two roommates, who were also members of the forum. 
 
 On Twitter on Saturday night, Vanguard America denied that Fields was a member, despite his presence with the group, and his uniform dress, saying that “shields were freely handed out to anyone in attendance”. 
 
 In a previous tweet commenting on the rally, they wrote: “Our members carry a purpose within them that drives them to risk their life and wellbeing for the cause. Bystanders won’t understand.” 
 
 Federal authorities are also looking into a helicopter crash on Saturday that killed two Virginia state police officers who were involved in efforts to quell the clashes. 
 
 
 
 The Associated Press contributed to this report ||||| A vehicle reverses after driving into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. The nationalists were holding the rally to... (Associated Press) 
 
 CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A car plowed into a crowd of people peacefully protesting a white nationalist rally Saturday in a Virginia college town, killing one person, hurting more than a dozen others and ratcheting up tension in a day full of violent confrontations. 
 
 Shortly after, a Virginia State Police helicopter that officials said was assisting with the rally crashed outside Charlottesville, killing the pilot and a trooper. 
 
 The chaos boiled over at what is believed to be the largest group of white nationalists to come together in a decade. The governor declared a state of emergency, and police dressed in riot gear ordered people out. The group had gathered to protest plans to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, and others arrived to protest the racism. 
 
 Matt Korbon, a 22-year-old University of Virginia student, said several hundred counter-protesters were marching when "suddenly there was just this tire screeching sound." A silver Dodge Challenger smashed into another car, then backed up, barreling through "a sea of people." 
 
 The impact hurled people into the air. Those left standing scattered, screaming and running for safety in different directions. 
 
 The driver was later identified by police as James Alex Fields Jr. of Ohio. Police say Fields, 20, has been charged with charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and one count related to leaving the scene. A bond hearing is scheduled for Monday. 
 
 Field's mother, Samantha Bloom, told The Associated Press on Saturday night that she knew her son was attending a rally in Virginia but didn't know it was a white supremacist rally. 
 
 "I thought it had something to do with Trump. Trump's not a white supremacist," Bloom said. 
 
 "He had an African-American friend so ...," she said before her voice trailed off. She added that she'd be surprised if her son's views were that far right. 
 
 Bloom, who became visibly upset as she learned of the injuries and deaths at the rally, said she and her son had just moved to the Toledo area from the northern Kentucky city of Florence. She said that's where Fields grew up. She relocated to Ohio for work. 
 
 Late Saturday, the Department of Justice announced the opening of a federal civil rights investigation into the deadly car attack. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that the FBI's Richmond field office and Rick Mountcastle, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, will lead the investigation. 
 
 "The violence and deaths in Charlottesville strike at the heart of American law and justice," Sessions said in a statement. "When such actions arise from racial bigotry and hatred, they betray our core values and cannot be tolerated." 
 
 The turbulence began Friday night, when the white nationalists carried torches though the University of Virginia campus. It quickly spiraled into violence Saturday morning. Hundreds of people threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays. At least three more men have been arrested in connection to the protests 
 
 The Virginia State Police announced late Saturday that Troy Dunigan, a 21-year-old from Chattanooga, Tennessee, was charged with disorderly conduct; Jacob L. Smith, a 21-year-old from Louisa, Virginia, was charged with assault and battery; and James M. O'Brien, 44, of Gainesville, Florida, was charged with carrying a concealed handgun. 
 
 City officials said treated 35 patients altogether, 19 of whom were injured in the car crash. 
 
 State Police said in a statement that the helicopter was "assisting public safety resources with the ongoing situation" when it crashed in a wooded area. The pilot, Lieutenant H. Jay Cullen, 48, of Midlothian, Virginia, and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates of Quinton, Virginia, died at the scene. 
 
 President Donald Trump condemned "in the strongest possible terms" what he called an "egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides" after the clashes. He called for "a swift restoration of law and order and the protection of innocent lives." 
 
 Trump said he had spoken with the governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, and "we agreed that the hate and the division must stop and must stop right now." 
 
 But some of the white nationalists cited Trump's victory as validation for their beliefs, and Trump's critics pointed to the president's racially tinged rhetoric as exploiting the nation's festering racial tension. 
 
 The Rev. Jesse Jackson noted that Trump for years publicly questioned President Barack Obama's citizenship. 
 
 "We are in a very dangerous place right now," he said. 
 
 Right-wing blogger Jason Kessler had called for what he termed a "pro-white" rally in Charlottesville, sparked by the monument decision. White nationalists and their opponents promoted the event for weeks. 
 
 Oren Segal, who directs the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism, said multiple white power groups gathered in Charlottesville, including members of neo-Nazi organizations, racist skinhead groups and Ku Klux Klan factions. 
 
 The white nationalist organizations Vanguard America and Identity Evropa; the Southern nationalist League of the South; the National Socialist Movement; the Traditionalist Workers Party; and the Fraternal Order of Alt Knights also were on hand, he said, along with several groups with a smaller presence. 
 
 On the other side, anti-fascist demonstrators also gathered in Charlottesville, but they generally aren't organized like white nationalist factions, said Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center. 
 
 Many others were just locals caught in the fray. 
 
 Colleen Cook, 26, stood on a curb shouting at the rally attendees to go home. 
 
 Cook, a teacher who attended the University of Virginia, said she sent her son, who is black, out of town for the weekend. 
 
 "This isn't how he should have to grow up," she said. 
 
 Cliff Erickson leaned against a fence and took in the scene. He said he thinks removing the statue amounts to erasing history and said the "counter-protesters are crazier than the alt-right." 
 
 "Both sides are hoping for a confrontation," he said. 
 
 It's the latest hostility in Charlottesville since the city about 100 miles outside of Washington, D.C., voted earlier this year to remove a statue of Lee. 
 
 In May, a torch-wielding group that included prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer gathered around the statue for a nighttime protest, and in July, about 50 members of a North Carolina-based KKK group traveled there for a rally, where they were met by hundreds of counter-protesters. 
 
 Kessler said this week that the rally is partly about the removal of Confederate symbols but also about free speech and "advocating for white people." 
 
 "This is about an anti-white climate within the Western world and the need for white people to have advocacy like other groups do," he said in an interview. 
 
 Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer said he was disgusted that the white nationalists had come to his town and blamed Trump for inflaming racial prejudices. 
 
 "I'm not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what you're seeing in American today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president," he said. 
 
 Charlottesville, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, is a liberal-leaning city that's home to the flagship UVA and Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. 
 
 The statue's removal is part of a broader city effort to change the way Charlottesville's history of race is told in public spaces. The city has also renamed Lee Park, where the statue stands, and Jackson Park, named for Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. They're now called Emancipation Park and Justice Park, respectively. 
 
 For now, the Lee statue remains. A group called the Monument Fund filed a lawsuit arguing that removing the statue would violate a state law governing war memorials. A judge has agreed to temporarily block the city from removing the statue for six months. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Alan Suderman in Richmond, Virginia, Heidi Brown in Charlottesville, Claire Galofaro in Louisville, Kentucky, and John Seewer in Maumee, Ohio, contributed to this report. ||||| UNION, Ky. -- The man police said rammed his car into a crowd of people protesting a white supremacist rally was "very infatuated with the Nazis," according to one of his high school teachers. 
 
 James Alex Fields Jr. also wanted to join the Army but wasn't allowed to enlist because of his mental health history, the teacher said. The 20-year-old grew up in Union, Kentucky, and recently moved to Northwest Ohio. 
 
 Fields was arraigned Monday morning on a second-degree murder charge, as well as malicious wounding and failure to stop in an accident that resulted in death. He was denied bail. 
 
 Charlottesville police said Fields, rammed his Dodge sports car into a sedan, which then hit a minivan. 
 
 Video caught the Dodge reversing, hitting more people, its windshield splintered from the collision and bumper dragging on the pavement. Medics carried the injured, bloodied and crying, away as a police tank rolled down the street. 
 
 Warning: The video below contains language and images that may be disturbing to some viewers. 
 
 Heather Heyer was killed and 19 people were hurt. 
 
 The collisions sent the vehicles into a crowd of counter-demonstrators. 
 
 H.R. McMaster, President Donald Trump's national security adviser, said Saturday's violence " meets the definition of terrorism ." Federal officials also have opened a civil rights investigation . 
 
 PHOTOS: Chaos in Charlottesville as white supremacist rally 
 
 His mother, Samantha Bloom, told The Associated Press on Saturday night that she knew her son was attending a rally in Virginia but didn’t know it was a white supremacist rally. 
 
 She said she'd told her son "to be careful" and to be peaceful. 
 
 "I thought it had something to do with Trump. Trump’s not a white supremacist," said Bloom, who became visibly upset as she learned of the injuries and deaths at the rally. 
 
 "He had an African-American friend so ...," she said before her voice trailed off. She added that she'd be surprised if her son’s views were that far right. 
 
 Bloom said they'd just relocated to the Toledo, Ohio area from Florence, Kentucky. 
 
 Derek Weimer, who taught two history courses to Fields at Randall K. Cooper High School in Union, Kentucky, said he was a quiet, respectful student but had some "radical ideas on race." 
 
 "He was very infatuated with the Nazis, with Adolf Hitler. He also had a huge military history, especially with German military history and World War II. But, he was pretty infatuated with that stuff. 
 
 "In his freshman year, he had an issue with that that was raised, and from then on we knew that he had those issues. I developed a good rapport with him and used that rapport to constantly try to steer him away from those beliefs to show clear examples -- why that thinking is wrong, why their beliefs were evil, you know, things like that," Weimer said. 
 
 He also recalled Fields wondering what society might be like if the Allies hadn't won. 
 
 "'What if Hitler had won? What if we had this large white supremacist empire going into the modern world?' -- that (Hitler's) views were right," Weimer said. 
 
 He said those views, combined with Fields' history of being prescribed antipsychotic medication, may have been a "perfect storm." 
 
 "I thought at times I got through to him," Weimer said, "but obviously not." 
 
 RELATED: Trump blaming 'many sides' draws swift reaction 
 
 Tanner Coleman, who knew Fields in passing at Cooper High, said he seemed like a "gentle giant" who was always alone. 
 
 "I seem to remember him being a very quiet guy who, when spoken to, was kind and shy," Coleman wrote in blog post Sunday. 
 
 Of the 19 patients taken to University of Virginia Medical Center, nine have been discharged and 10 are in good condition, Angela Taylor with UVA Health Systems told ABC News on Sunday afternoon . The hospital has treated additional patients related to Saturday’s events, Taylor said, but the facility does not have an exact number of patients. 
 
 The vehicle that hit the crowd was purchased in June 2015 from a car dealership in Florence , according to a Carfax report. The vehicle’s registration was renewed in Maumee, Ohio in 2016, the report said. 
 
 RELATED: Governor tells white supremacists to 'go home' 
 
 The chaos boiled over at what is believed to be the largest group of white supremacists to come together in a decade: the governor declared a state of emergency, police dressed in riot gear ordered people out and helicopters circled overhead. 
 
 Oren Segal, who directs the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, said multiple white power groups gathered in Charlottesville, including members of neo-Nazi organizations, racist skinheads and KKK factions. The white supremacist organizations Vanguard America and Identity Evropa; the Southern nationalist League of the South; the National Socialist Movement; the Traditionalist Workers Party; and the Fraternal Order of Alt Knights also were on hand, he said. 
 
 A photo from Segal shows Fields with Vanguard America, but the group denied he was a member . 
 
 James Alex Fields was w/ the Vanguard America folks in #Charlottesville . Learn more about the group > https://t.co/HNloF8Btnf @ADL_National pic.twitter.com/TmJLi0kfZo — Oren Segal (@orensegal) August 13, 2017 
 
 On the other side, anti-fascist demonstrators also gathered, but they generally aren’t organized like white supremacist factions, said Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center. 
 
 In addition to Fields, at least three more men were arrested in connection to the protests. 
 
 The Virginia State Police announced late Saturday that Troy Dunigan, a 21-year-old from Chattanooga, Tennessee, was charged with disorderly conduct; Jacob L. Smith, a 21-year-old from Louisa, Virginia, was charged with assault and battery; and James M. O’Brien, 44, of Gainesville, Florida, was charged with carrying a concealed handgun. 
 
 Just as the city seemed like to be quieting down, black smoke billowed out from the tree tops just outside of town as a Virginia State Police helicopter crashed into the woods . 
 
 Robby E. Noll, who lives in the county just outside Charlottesville, heard the helicopter sputtering. 
 
 "I turned my head to the sky. You could tell he was struggling to try to get control of it," he said. 
 
 He said pieces of the helicopter started to break off as it fell from the sky. 
 
 Both troopers onboard, Lt. H. Jay Cullen, 48, and Berke M.M. Bates, one day shy of his 41st birthday, were killed. Police said the helicopter had been deployed to the violent protests in the city, which has been caught in the middle of the nation’s culture wars since it decided earlier this year to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, enshrined in bronze on horseback in the city's Emancipation Park. 
 
 In May, a torch-wielding group that included prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer gathered around the statue for a nighttime protest. That scene replayed Friday night, when white supremacists marched through the University of Virginia campus chanting "blood and soil," a Nazi slogan. 
 
 In July, about 50 members of a North Carolina-based KKK group traveled to Charlottesville for a rally. 
 
 Spencer returned for Saturday's protest, and denied all responsibility for the violence. He blamed the police. 
 
 Signer said the white supremacist groups who came into his city to spread hate "are on the losing side of history." 
 
 "Tomorrow will come and we will emerge," he said, "I can promise you, stronger than ever." 
 
 Four-hundred miles away, the mayor of Lexington, Kentucky, hinted that the white supremacists might get the opposite of what they’d hoped for. Mayor Jim Gray announced on Twitter that he would work to remove the Confederate monument at his county’s courthouse . 
 
 "Today’s events in Virginia remind us that we must bring our country together by condemning violence, white supremacists and Nazi hate groups," he wrote. "We cannot let them define our future." 
 
 --- 
 
 Associated Press writers Alan Suderman in Richmond, Virginia, Heidi Brown in Charlottesville, Claire Galofaro in Louisville, Kentucky, and John Seewer in Maumee, Ohio, contributed to this report.
– James Alex Fields Jr. has been charged with second-degree murder among other crimes after allegedly plowing his silver Dodge Challenger into a crowd of counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, Saturday, and killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer in the process. What we know about Fields: The 20-year-old from Maumee, Ohio, was photographed earlier Saturday with Vanguard America, a white supremacist, neo-Nazi group that the Guardian reports dresses in white polo shirts and khakis. The New York Times reports Vanguard America denied Fields is in any way a member and tweeted that wearing a white shirt does "not denote membership ... The shirts were freely handed out to anyone in attendance." Fields' mother, Samantha Bloom, spoke to the AP Saturday night and said that she was aware her son was headed to Virginia for a rally, but didn't know it was a white supremacist rally. "I thought it had something to do with Trump. Trump's not a white supremacist." She continued, "He had an African-American friend so..." then trailed off. Fields and his mother had recently moved to Ohio from northern Kentucky, and one of his former teachers there recalls his experience with Fields to WPCO. Randall K. Cooper High School history teacher Derek Weimer says Fields "was very infatuated with the Nazis, with Adolf Hitler. He also had a huge military history, especially with German military history and World War II." Bloom told the Toledo Blade her son moved into his own place in Maumee "five or six months ago" but texted her Friday to say he had left his cat at her apartment before heading to Virginia. One of Bloom's neighbors said she hadn't seen Fields' car recently, and says when she previously did see him he often had polka music blaring from the car. The Times cites military records that show Fields enrolled in the Army on Aug. 18, 2015, but "his period of active duty concluded" just shy of four months later; it reports the reason why is unclear.