(Image source from: NOLA.com)

The Department of Justice issued hate crime charges against a man accused of killing a woman and injuring dozens more after he drove his car through a crowd of people protesting a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia earlier this summer.

Prosecuting attorneys on Wednesday proclaimed 30 civil rights charges against 21-year-old James Alex Fields of Ohio, including one count of a hate crime act resulting in the death of Heather Heyer. The 32-year-old paralegal was killed when Dodge Challenger tore through a group of demonstrators near the downtown mall.

The attack marked a deadly end to a day already filled with violence amid tension between alt-right supremacists, neo-Nazis, and counter-protesters advocating for peace.

"The events of August 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, are a grim reminder of why the FBI prioritizes its investigations of civil rights violations among the top of its criminal programs," said Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge Adam S. Lee of the Richmond Division, who also oversees the office in Charlottesville.

"I hope today will also be a reminder to those who are motivated by hate and intent on committing violence; we are going to be there, just as we were in this case."

A grand jury in Charlottesville late last year separately indicted Fields on 10 charges stemming from the violence at the rally, including first-degree murder.

By Sowmya Sangam