An Indiana man was in the center of violence this weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a 32-year-old woman was killed and 19 people were injured. Matthew Heimbach, who lives in Paoli, heads the white nationalist group Traditionalist Workers Party.
Hundreds of white nationalists, white supremacists, neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members and others were involved, in what Heimbach, called the nation's biggest such event in a decade or more. Even more opponents turned out, and the two sides clashed violently.
Heimbach, who said he was pepper-sprayed during the melee in Charlottesville, called the event Saturday "an absolute stunning victory" for the far right because of the large number of supporters who descended on the city to decry plans to remove a statue of Lee.
In college, Heimbach founded a white Nationalist group. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center he became increasingly outspoken and transparent with his white nationalist beliefs after he graduated.
The events in Charlottesville resulted in the death of one woman when a car, allegedly driven by a white supremacist protester, plowed into a crowd of counter protesters. More than a dozen others were injured. Virginia state police say two troopers were also killed when one of its helicopters crashed outside Charlottesville.
The Department of Justice has 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."
Republican Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb called the event that led to the woman's death "sickening."
"[I] obviously condemn those type of actions," Holcomb says. "There's nothing supreme about those white supremacists other than their stupidity and that's all I have to say about it."
White Nationalists groups are pledging to hold more rallies soon.
"We're going to be more active than ever before," Heimbach said Monday.
The Associated Press, Brandon Smith, and Barbara Brosher contributed to this story.
