The grieving parents of the woman who was killed in Charlottesville when a car rammed into a crowd of protesters said that she was a born do-gooder with a strong sense of right and wrong.
At the memorial service for Heather Heyer on Aug. 16, her father, Mark Heyer, spoke of a daughter who was passionate in what she believed and “hard not to love.”
“Her passion extended to her ideas,” Mark Heyer said. “She wanted to put down hate.”
Heather Heyer, 32, was a woman who would tell others what she thought, and let others know if she thought they were not being straight with her.
Mark Heyer said he was moved at the “rainbow of colors” at the memorial service. “It didn’t matter who you were or where you were from, if she loved you, that was it. You were stuck,” he said. “For that I am truly proud of my daughter.”
Heather Heyer was part of a counter protest on Saturday, Aug. 12, against a variety of groups, including extremist nationalists and white supremacists, who gathered in Charlottesville for the Unite the Right rally to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
While Heather Heyer participated peacefully, armed members of the left-wing Antifa extremist group and other violent groups attacked and clashed with the Unite the Right crowd, beginning on the night of Friday, Aug. 11.
On Saturday, the Unite the Right event was canceled by authorities, with police instructing the protesters to leave. Clashes continued throughout the day, with police watching but not taking any action to protect either side.
A car allegedly driven by 20-year-old James A. Fields plowed into a crowd of counter protesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others. Ten of the injured have been released from the hospital, and nine are said to be in good condition, according to Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Heather Heyer was a native of Greene County, Virginia. She graduated from William Monroe High School in Stanardsville.
She was working as a paralegal at the Miller Law Group in Charlottesville, according to the firm’s website.
Her mother, Susan Bro, spoke at the memorial service about her daughter’s legacy.
“Anybody who knew Heather would say this is the way she had to go—big and large,” Bro said. “She had to have the world involved.”
“They tried to kill my child to shut her up. But guess what, you just magnified her. So here’s what I want to happen. You ask me, ‘What can I do?’”
“I want this to spread, I don’t want this to die,” Bro said. “This is just the beginning of Heather’s legacy.”
