Heather Heyer's Family Seeks New Way to 'Extinguish Hatred'

The mother of the woman fatally struck by a car at a 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Va., hopes to "extinguish hatred" with a $12 million lawsuit against her daughter's killer. White supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. is the sole defendant in the wrongful-death suit filed Aug. 30 in Charlottesville Circuit Court, which lists Heather Heyer's mother, father, and brother as beneficiaries, reports the Daily Progress. The family demands $10 million in compensatory damages and $2 million in punitive damages in what mother Susan Bro says is an effort to keep Fields from profiting from his crimes.

She's not interested in "blood money" but wants "to show others that there are serious consequences for actions of hatred and violence." "This lawsuit is a way to continue to extinguish hatred," adds Bro, the administrator of Heyer's estate who's now working to combat fake news through the Heather Heyer Foundation, per WUSA9. Fields, serving more than two dozen life terms, has been named in a number of state and federal lawsuits filed by victims. The Daily Progress notes he could also be charged $2,900 for each of 29 federal hate crimes to which he pleaded guilty, with each victim to receive "a proportional share." (More Heather Heyer stories.)