FILE-In this Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017 file photo, Marcus Martin pauses during a vigil, held for the victims of an attack on Saturday in Charlottesville, Va. James Alex Fields Jr. plowed a car into a crowd of people protesting a white supremacist rally on Saturday, injuring over a dozen people including Martin. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) – With tires screeching and bodies flying, Marcus Martin shoved his fiancee out of the way of a car charging through a crowd of peaceful protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Marcus Martin was promptly hit and upended by the car as it plowed through the crowd. Flat on his back with a broken leg, he says he experienced several minutes of terror.
“The only thing running through my mind was: please don’t let her be dead,” Martin, 26, told The Associated Press in an interview. “Please don’t let her be dead.”
Marissa Blair was OK, and Martin’s body was captured in a photograph as he tumbled over the crashing car that fatally hit Heather Heyer, a friend who had been marching with Blair and Martin. Nineteen others were injured.
Martin’s mother, Kimberly Martin, was terrified as she watched the scene replayed on television.