Heather Heyer's mother sues Charlottesville killer to 'make sure he doesn't get rich' off of his story

Heather Heyer.
(Image credit: Pool/Getty Images)

Heather Heyer's mother is suing her daughter's killer — but she doesn't want his "blood money."

Susan Bro has filed a lawsuit against James Fields, the man convicted of hitting Heyer with his car and killing her in Charlottesville, North Carolina, in August 2017, she told the Richmond Times-Dispatch in a Wednesday interview. Bro, Heyer's father, and Heyer's brother are all listed as beneficiaries in the $12 million suit, but she says it's all a preemptive measure against Fields to ensure he can never sell his story.

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Fields was attending the white nationalist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville when he drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, hitting and killing Heyer, 32. He was sentenced to life in prison for Heyer's murder, and then got a second life conviction for 29 counts of hate crimes. Bro has since worked to turn Heyer's death into a "rallying cry" against white supremacy, and has founded a youth activist group in her name.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.