James Alex Fields Jr. of Ohio was charged with second-degree murder in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday after he smashed a car into a line of cars in an episode that left a 32-year-old woman dead and injured at least 19 other people who were protesting a rally staged by white nationalists.
What We Know
• Mr. Fields, 20, was born in Kenton, Ky., to Samantha Lea Bloom.
• He was living with his mother until “five or six months ago” when he moved to his own apartment in Maumee, Ohio, according to an interview that Ms. Bloom
gave to The Toledo Blade. They moved to Ohio from Kentucky about year ago because of her job, she said.
• Mr. Fields’s father died before he was born, an aunt, Pam Fields, said on Sunday. His mother was a paraplegic and was in a wheelchair.
Ms. Fields said she had not seen her nephew, whom she remembered as a “very quiet little boy” more than five times in the past 10 years.
Military records show that Mr. Fields entered the Army on Aug. 18, 2015, around the time his mother
wrote on Facebook that he had left for boot camp. Less than four months later, on Dec. 11, his period of active duty concluded.
It was not immediately clear why he left the military.