She lost a friend and nearly lost her fiance.
Charlottesville, Va., resident Marissa Blair would’ve been struck by a rampaging Dodge Challenger if her husband-to-be, Marcus Martin, hadn’t pushed her out of the melee that killed their friend, Heather Heyer.
“Who thinks to push someone out of the way when a car is coming?” Blair said on CNN’s “New Day” on Monday. “A split second to think and he thought to push me out of the way. I’m forever grateful. He’s my hero.”
Martin was struck by the sports car, which police say was driven by neo-Nazi James Fields, who traveled to Charlottesville to take part in white supremacist rally on Saturday.
Martin was photographed falling to the ground, and the impact wounded his leg.
“He and Heather are both my heroes,” Blair said.
Heyer, 32, was a paralegal who worked with Blair and took up the causes of the less fortunate.
“She would never back down from what she believed in,” Blair said. “That’s what she died doing, fighting for what she believed in.”
Blair appeared on CNN in a purple T-shirt with Heyer’s image and the slogan, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”
Those were the words in Heyer’s last public Facebook post.
“I will never find another friend like Heather,” Blair said. “So many people are doing vigils for Heather and they didn’t even know her.”
Martin appeared with a bouquet of white flowers at a Sunday night vigil in Charlottesville, in a wheelchair with his left leg in a cast.
“What happened here is 100% wrong,” Martin said in a raspy voice.
Fields was charged with second-degree murder and is due before a judge Monday.
The Ohio resident was seen wearing the uniform and brandishing the logo of white nationalist group Vanguard America, which has denied Fields is a member.
Blair said that she, Martin and Heyer went to protest the hate-filled “Unite the Right” rally because they didn’t want the groups spreading violence in their native Charlottesville.
“We didn’t want neo Nazis and alt-right and racists to come into our city and think they could spread their hate, bigotry and racism,” Blair told CNN.
“We were peacefully protesting and we were just standing up for what we believe in.”
Martin, appearing at the candlelit vigil Sunday night, blasted President Trump for refusing to condemn the attacker for his white supremacist ties.
“It’s a hate crime and Donald Trump won’t call it that because it’s what he believes in,” Martin told Fox News.
The President has come under fire for not directly admonishing the white supremacy groups during his reaction to the violence.
The White House on Sunday issued a statement clarifying that his remarks a day earlier were meant to condemn white nationalists, neo-Nazis and the KKK.
But Blair said the commander-in-chief needs to do more to heal the wounds brought about by the clashes in Charlottesville.
“(Trump) needs to call out the hate in this country,” she told CNN.
“He needs to be worried about the United States and not his followers and not the power and publicity and not his golf trips,” a choked-up Blair continued.
“He needs to worry about my friend that died and the people that were injured.”
