CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The mother of the woman killed when a car plowed into a crowd of people protesting a white nationalist rally in Virginia said she doesn’t want people to be angry about her daughter’s death.
Instead, she said she wants people to continue her daughter’s fight against injustice in a peaceful way.
‘‘I miss her so, so much, but I’m going to make her death worth something,’’ Susan Bro said in an interview Monday.
Bro described her daughter, Heather Heyer, as a courageous, stubborn, and principled woman who was a firm believer in justice and equality who died Saturday for those beliefs. Bro said she would prefer to grieve in private, but felt compelled to try to follow her daughter’s example.
‘‘Let’s take from her death that we’re going to move forward in conversation. We’re going to move forward in understanding and listening to one another and seeing how we can come together,’’ Bro said.
‘‘Our daughter did not live a life of hate, and hating this young man is not going to solve anything. . . . It’s not that I think he should go unpunished for his crime. But hate only engenders more hate, and there’s no purpose in hate,’’ Bro told The Washington Post.
‘‘Heather’s life was about, passionately about, fairness and equality and caring, and that’s what we want people to take away from this,’’ she said.
Heyer, 32, was among the hundreds of protesters who had gathered in Charlottesville to decry what was believed to be the largest gathering of white supremacists in a decade — including neo-Nazis, skinheads, and Ku Klux Klan members — who descended on the city to rally against plans to remove a Confederate statue.
Felicia Correa, a longtime friend of Heyer, said the slain woman was a ‘‘true American hero.’’
Heyer grew up in Greene County and worked as a legal assistant at a law firm. Her boss, Larry Miller, said the young woman was active in the firm’s bankruptcy practice and had a ‘‘big heart.’’
‘‘She cares about the people we take care of. Just a great person,’’ he said.
Marissa Blair, who was with Heyer when the crash happened, said Sunday night during a vigil at the scene that Heyer’s death was ‘‘an act of terror.’’ She said it was a hate crime and should be treated as such.
Blair said Fields ‘‘barreled down,’’ and that she could hear the wheels as he accelerated. Fields ‘‘deserves everything he gets and more,’’ she said.
Two state troopers — Lieutenant H. Jay Cullen and Trooper-Pilot Berke M. M. Bates — also died when their helicopter crashed in woods while deployed as part of a large-scale police effort to contain Saturday’s violence.
They were remembered for their commitment and love of their jobs.
Governor Terry McAuliffe of Virginia knew both troopers personally and expressed grief over their deaths. McAuliffe frequently uses State Police aircraft to travel the state and said Cullen, 48, had been one of his regular pilots.
Before joining the aviation unit, Bates had been a member of the state trooper team that guards the governor and his family. ‘‘It was personal to me,’’ McAuliffe said Sunday morning at a church service. ‘‘We were very close.’’
Cullen was a 23-year veteran of the department and head of the aviation unit. He leaves his wife and two sons. Berke joined the department in 2004, and leaves his wife, a son, and a daughter.
‘‘Both of them were great guys who loved what they were doing,’’ said Perry Benshoof, a retired trooper who worked with both.
