Charlottesville, Virginia, will cover statues of Confederate generals Robert E Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson in black fabric to mourn Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old woman who was killed when a car rammed into a group of people protesting a white nationalist rally in the city.
The rally was sparked by the city’s decision to remove a statue of Lee. At least 30 people were injured in the car attack. Two state police officers died later when their helicopter crashed.
The fallout from the rally has featured national debate, after Donald Trump said activists from “both sides” had been responsible for violence.
Trump’s refusal to effectively disavow the support of white nationalist groups and questioning of the need to remove statues of Confederate figures stoked the continuing controversy and led to a number of resignations from White House advisory panels.
At a CNN-sponsored town hall event in Wisconsin on Monday night, House speaker Paul Ryan said Trump “messed up” but declined to censure the president, saying that to do so would be “counterproductive”.
Mike Pence, the vice-president, told NBC Today on Tuesday morning that Trump has denounced “bigotry and hatred”, adding that “there was no moral equivalency drawn by the president”.
Authorities in cities including Baltimore and Austin, Texas, have acted to remove statues of Confederate figures. On Tuesday, a Confederate memorial was removed from outside a courthouse in Elliott City, Maryland and a memorial at the Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio was vandalised.
The Daily Progress newspaper reported that the Charlottesville city council voted unanimously early on Tuesday morning to shroud the statues. The vote came after anger boiled over at the first city council meeting since the rally. Some residents screamed and cursed at councillors and called for their resignations.
The Charlottesville mayor, Mike Signer, read a resolution to commemorate the three people who died, the Daily Progress reported, after a member of the crowd accused him of being responsible for the loss of life.
A police spokeswoman said three people were arrested and released on summons for disorderly conduct.
Heyer was a paralegal and civil rights activist. The man accused in her death is due to appear in court later this week.
- This article was amended on 22 August 2017 to clarify that Heyer worked as a paralegal. We originally described her as a lawyer.