You may not know Marcus Martin, but chances are, you’ve seen him. Martin was one of the Charlottesville counter protesters injured by a car that careened into a crowd during the “Unite the Right” white supremacist rally. A number of photographers snapped images of the car plowing through a wall of people—Martin is in a few of them. His body tumbling over the car, his back almost perfectly parallel to the street beneath him.
Today, Martin will be in the same room as the man behind the wheel of that car—the white supremacist who killed his friend, Heather Heyer.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, James Alex Fields Jr. will face a court hearing today on charges including second degree murder and felonious assault. The preliminary hearing will be to establish whether prosecutors have the necessary evidence to seek an indictment.
Martin told the Chronicle that he plans to attend the hearing. His leg was broken in the attack, and as the 27-year-old Virginia native recently told NBC, he still walks with a slight limp and hopes to regain strength in his leg eventually.
Today in court, Martin says he wants to ask Fields, “Why did you do that? What made you do that?”
He has PTSD now from the traumatic event, and told NBC that he jumps whenever he hears tires screeching. He’s also been seeing a therapist, which he said has been helpful.
Martin was able to push his fiancée, Marissa Blair out of the way when Fields drove his Dodge Challenger into the crowd, but wasn’t able to save her friend Heyer. Blair, Martin says, still just “breaks down crying” over the loss of her friend. He told the Chronicle that he’s “living every day just trying to forget.”
“It’s not fair to say that I don’t trust white people because not all of them are like that. But when I see someone with a Confederate flag or with Confederate flag attire on, I don’t take my eyes off of them. I just stare at them,” Martin told NBC. “It’s not out of intimidation or for me to instill fear in them, it’s me looking out for myself because I know you know who I am. I’m not going to let you try to hurt me, understanding that’s what you represent.”
Fields has been in custody since the deadly rally. A conviction for second-degree murder would land Fields behind bars for 40 years under Virginia State law.
Read more at The San Francisco Chronicle and NBC News.