Alleged Driver In C’Ville Car Attack Had ‘Fascination With Nazism,’ Teacher Says

A person is taken away by the EMS workers after a car ran into pedestrians during a Unite the Right rally protest over the name change of Lee Park on Saturday Aug. 12, 2017 in Charlottesville
An injured person is taken away by Emergency Medical Services workers after a car ran into pedestrians during a white nationalist rally, Saturday Aug. 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Va. (Shaban Athuman/Richmond Times-... An injured person is taken away by Emergency Medical Services workers after a car ran into pedestrians during a white nationalist rally, Saturday Aug. 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Va. (Shaban Athuman/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP) MORE LESS
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A former teacher of James Alex Fields, Jr., the man accused of ramming a car into a group of protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Sunday said Fields had a “fascination with Nazism.”

“It was obvious that he had this fascination with Nazism and a big idolatry of Adolf Hitler,” Derek Weimer, who said he taught Fields history in high school, told the Washington Post on Sunday.

Weimer told the Washington Post that Fields conducted a research project into the Nazi military during World War II which he described as a “big lovefest for the German military and the Waffen-SS.”

“He had white supremacist views,” Weimer said. “He really believed in that stuff.”

Fields was charged with second-degree murder and other counts on Saturday after a car plowed into protesters at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville. A 32-year-old woman was killed in the car attack and dozens of people were injured.

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