Mother of Charlottesville victim has received death threats

The mother of the woman killed during racially motivated violence last weekend in Charlottesville, Va., has received death threats, she said Thursday.

Susan Bro, mother of Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old killed Saturday when a car driven by a man with alleged neo-Nazi ties rammed into a group of anti-racist protesters, told NBC News on Thursday that she has received multiple threats following the publicity surrounding her daughter’s death.

“I’ve had death threats already … because of what I’m doing right this second,” Bro told NBC.

Bro has spoken out about Heyer’s opposition to racial discrimination and hatred.

{mosads}”They tried to kill my child to shut her up. Well, guess what? You just magnified her,” Bro said at Heyer’s funeral on Wednesday.

Bro went on to blame the president for seeking out a group of right-wing voters that felt marginalized before his election but now feel empowered by his victory.

“I think the president has found a niche in voters of the people who feel marginalized, and I think he has continued to nurture those marginalized voters,” she said.

She added that she hasn’t responded to President Trump’s attempted phone calls. Trump reached out following the funeral, she said. 

“I saw that his office had called about three times,” Bro said. “It feels awful, but I just haven’t had time to talk to the president.”

Trump received harsh criticism for his response to the violence that occurred Saturday. In his initial response, Trump blamed “many sides” for the violence that left Heyer dead and dozens others injured.

“Whether there was violence on both sides or not is irrelevant,” Bro countered Thursday. “The guy mowed my daughter down and, sorry, that’s not excusable.”

The president initially went further and denounced the KKK and neo-Nazis that organized the rally to protest the removal of a Confederate statue in a statement on Monday, but then pivoted back to casting blame on the “alt-left” for bringing violence to the rally.

“What about the alt-left that came charging at the — as you say, the alt-right?” Trump asked Tuesday. “Do they have any semblance of guilt? What about the fact they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs?”