'Hate Has No Home Here:' Prayer Service, Vigil Planned Monday Night In Toms River

TOMS RIVER, NJ — In the wake of violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, VA, over the weekend that left one woman and two Virginia state troopers dead, gatherings have been planned for Monday night in Toms River.

A prayer service is planned for 6 p.m. at Christ Episcopal Church on Washington Street, next to the Toms River Country Club.

Immediately following that is a candlelight vigil in the courtyard at Toms River's Town Hall, between the municipal building and the Ocean County Library. That gathering, titled "Hate Has No Home Here," is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m.

"Gather in the courtyard to show that America is home to everyone! Bring your signs and candles while we gather in solidarity against hatred in our country," the description on the Facebook event for the vigil says. Parking is available at no cost after 6 p.m. in the parking structure behind Town Hall and the Ocean County Library.

The two events are in response to the deadly clashes that happened in Charlottesville, where a "Unite the Right" rally had been planned as a protest against the proposed removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, the lead general of the Confederate Army in the Civil War. The rally, attended by a number of white nationalist groups, neo-Nazi organizations and that included white nationalist Richard Spencer and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, clashed with counterprotesters who came out to oppose the rally.

A car plowed into a crowd of people believed to be counter-demonstrators Saturday afternoon at the rally, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer, a Charlottesville resident, and injuring as many as 19 0thers, authorities said. The driver of the car, 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr., of Ohio has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and hit-and-run attended failure to stop with injury.

A few hours later, a state police helicopter that had been helping to monitor Saturday's events crashed in a wooded area, killing both troopers who were aboard the chopper. They were identified as Lieutenant H. Jay Cullen, 48, of Midlothian, Va., and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates of Quinton, Va. Both troopers died at the scene.

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