(RNN) - The father of the 32-year-old woman killed in the Charlottesville violence forgave the man charged with her death.
Heather Heyer was killed when James Allen Fields Jr. allegedly drove a car into a crowd of protesters at high speed, then fled the scene by backing up. Nineteen other people were injured.
Mark Heyer, Heather’s father, who lives in Sharpes, FL, told Florida Today that his daughter truly believed in the rights of others and acted on those beliefs.
“She was a strong woman who had passionate opinions about the equality of everyone, and she tried to stand up for that,” Heyer said. “With her it wasn’t lip service, it was real. It was something she wanted to share with everyone.”
Heyer said the lesson of the tragedy in Charlottesville is that people on all sides need to learn to forgive each other.
“I include myself in forgiving the guy who did this,” he said. “I just think about what the Lord said on the cross, ‘Forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.’”
Copyright 2017 Raycom News Network. All rights reserved. CNN contributed to this story.
