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Suspected Charlottesville driver’s mom called police repeatedly on her son for domestic violence

The calls were reportedly made when the suspect was a teenager

Clark Mindock
New York
Monday 14 August 2017 22:23 BST
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The suspected driver of the car that killed a woman reportedly had been reported to the police by his mother before
The suspected driver of the car that killed a woman reportedly had been reported to the police by his mother before (EPA)

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The mother of the man suspected of having driven into a crowd in Charlottesville during a protest repeatedly called emergency services saying her son beat her, according to transcripts.

The transcripts, obtained by multiple news outlets, indicate that the mother of James Alex Fields had called police to report her son had abused her. Mr Fields is currently in police custody, and was recently denied bail for his suspected involvement in the bloody crash that left one woman dead and 19 others injured.

The 911 records show that Mr Fields’s mother called a police agency in Kentucky several times in 2010 and 2011. In one instance, Mr Fields reportedly stood behind his wheelchair-bound mother with a 12-inch knife, prompting a friend to call the police and say he was threatening his mother. In another incident, Mr Fields’s mother called 911 from a bathroom after he grew violent because she said he needed to stop playing video games. A third incident was reported because the mother felt threatened after Mr Fields yelled at her, according to reports of the transcripts.

A grey Dodge Charger smashed into a group of counter protesters who had descended on Charlottesville, Virginia, to push back on a white supremacist rally being held there to protest the planned removal of a Confederate monument there. A video of the events shows the car quickly accelerating into the crowd before smashing into two stopped cars. The vehicle then reversed quickly before fleeing the scene.

Mr Fields, 20, has been charged with one count of second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and a hit and run.

Since the deadly attack, rumours have swirled about Mr Fields’s past. A former history teacher has said that his former student idolised Hiltler and the Nazis, and that Mr Fields had told him that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was younger. His Facebook profile — which was deactivated after the attack — was filled with pro-Trump and alt-right messaging.

Mr Fields had recently moved near Toledo, Ohio, with his mother, according to reports. They had previously lived in Northern Kentucky. He is suspected of having driven down from Ohio for the rally.

His mother told reporters after the attacks that she wasn’t aware of the reason for the rally, or aware of any motivations to harm others.

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