Heyer’s Dad Forgives Charlottesville Driver

Heather Heyer’s Dad Forgives Charlottesville Driver: ‘He Don’t Know No Better’

PETER HASSON
Associate Editor
9:49 AM 08/15/2017


The father of the woman killed at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville over the weekend forgave the man who killed his daughter and cited the Bible in calling for more forgiveness from all sides of the political spectrum.

“My daughter was a strong woman who had passionate opinions about the equality of everyone and she tried to stand up for that. And for her it wasn’t lip service, it was real. It was something that she wanted to share with everyone,” Mark Heyer said in an interview with a local news outlet on Monday. Mark’s daughter, 32-year-old Heather Heyer, died on Saturday after 20-year-old James Fields drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters. (RELATED: Mother Of Charlottesville Victim Thanks Trump For Condemning Neo-Nazis, White Supremacists)

“And my thoughts with all of this stuff is that people need to stop hating and they need to forgive each other. I include myself in that in forgiving the guy that did this. He don’t know no better. I just think about what the Lord said on the cross. Lord, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing,” Mark Heyer said.

“My daughter’s life — I’m proud of her. I’m proud of her for standing up. She had more courage than I did. She had a stubborn backbone that if she thought she was right she would stand there and defy you. But if I understand her, she wanted to do it peacefully and with a fierceness of heart that comes with her conviction,” he added.

“I hope all this stuff that’s come out isn’t twisted into something negative but there comes a positive change in people’s hearts, in their thinking, in their understanding of their neighbor. We just need to forgive each other. And I just hope that’s what comes out of all this.”