The 32-year-old woman who was killed in Charlottesville, Virginia, while protesting white nationalists and Nazis has been identified as Heather Heyer.
Heyer, a native of Greene County, graduated from William Monroe High School and was currently working as a paralegal. According to Heyer’s LinkedIn profile, she worked for Miller Law Group PC in Virginia as a legal assistant.
Her fervor for helping the disenfranchised spurred the young Heyer to walk the streets of Charlottesville, protesting white nationalists who seek to protect the status of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. “We were just marching around, spreading love — and then the accident happened,” a friend, Marissa Blair, said. “In a split second you see a car, and you see bodies flying. Heather was such a sweet soul, and she did not deserve to die. ”
According to authorities, Heyer was killed instantly by a car who drove plowed through a crowd of protesters.
via Huffington Post:
“She always had a very strong sense of right and wrong, she always, even as a child, was very caught up in what she believed to be fair,” Susan Bro, Heyer’s mother, said. “Somehow I almost feel that this is what she was born to be, is a focal point for change. I’m proud that what she was doing was peaceful, she wasn’t there fighting with people.”
She recalled that her daughter was charitable and reached out to the underprivileged. Bro said Heather used to invite friends who were “having a hard time” to stay with them, sometimes for months. Anyone who needed help received it from Heather, Bro said.
About Heather Heyer
Heyer has been known in the Charlottesville community for speaking out against inequality and urging co-workers to do the same. “Heather was a very strong woman,” said Alfred A. Wilson, manager of the bankruptcy division at the Miller Law Group in Charlottesville, where Ms. Heyer worked as a paralegal. She stood up against “any type of discrimination,” he said. “That’s just how she’s always been.”
Mr. Wilson would offend find Heyer crying at her computer, as the injustices of the world moved her to tears. “Heather being Heather has seen something on Facebook or read something in the news and realized someone has been mistreated and gets upset.”
Heather was hired by Mr. Wilson as a paralegal, despite having only a high school diploma with experience as a bar tender and waitress. He said she had a good eye and was a “people person.”
“If you can get people to open up to you, that’s what I need,” he told her. “I’ll teach you everything about the law you need to know.”
Mr. Wilson also appreciated that Heyer left her a former boyfriend who profiled/judged him for being a successful black man. “She just didn’t like the way he was judging me as a minority male that’s doing well for myself,”
Heather Heyer’s last Facebook reads, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”
A Go Fund Me page has been set up in honor of Heyer. She has raised over $223,000 so far as of Sunday evening.
