Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that the Charlottesville, Va., car attack could be considered a hate crime, NBC News reported Wednesday.
“It very well could be a civil rights violation or a hate crime, and there might be other charges that could be brought,” Sessions told NBC.
He said that the Justice Department is working with state and local police on prosecuting 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr., the man accused of driving his car into a crowd of people protesting a white supremacist rally, killing one and injuring 19 more. He added that the local jurisdictions usually have the “best charges.”
Sessions added that officials have not decided whether Fields would be tried in federal or state court.
{mosads}”We’ll work with the state and locals and then decide, in a collaborative way, to see what the best charges will be,” he said. “The right and professional thing to do is work together and to make an honest and objective decision about whether the right place is to bring the case.”
He said the department would not rush in filing the charges, adding, “I don’t feel like we should feel like we have to do it in a matter of hours or even days.”
Sessions declined to comment to NBC on whether the attack was pre-planned.