Key Considerations About the Events on Fourth Street in Charlottesville

I have studied various conspiracy theories about the incident in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12, 2017, when James Fields drove his car into a crowd of so-called "counter-protesters" at the intersection of Fourth Street and Water Street. The questions that interested me included the following:.

* Was Fields guided by conspirators to Fourth Street?

* Why did the counter-protesters turn northward onto Fourth Street?

* Why did Fields idle and drive his car forwards and backwards on Fourth Street for two or more minutes before he drove into the crowd?

* Why had a maroon van and a black truck parked at the intersection of Fourth Street and Water Street?

In that area, only Fourth Street allows vehicle traffic. First, Second, Third and Fifth Streets allow only pedestrian traffic. Fields was able to drive into the crowd only because:

1) he positioned his car on Fourth Street and

2) the walking crowd turned from Water Street onto Fourth Street.

Click on the map to enlarge it.

If you study the streets' layout and traffic, and if you study the protesters' and counter-protesters' movements, you too might wonder how the car and the crowd both came to be on Fourth Street at the same time. You too might wonder further whether the encounter was arranged by a conspiracy.

I have found that the following considerations satisfied many of my own suspicions.

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Fields had to walk a half-hour to get his car.

A riot broke out in Emancipation Park (aka Lee Park) in downtown Charlottesville in the late morning of August 12. The police broke up the worst of the fighting at around noon.

During or after that riot, Fields walked from the area of Emancipation Park to McIntire Park, where he had parked his car.  During that walk, Fields acquainted himself with three men who likewise were walking from Emancipation to McIntire.

Click on the map to enlarge it.

Afterwards, those three men were questioned by police interrogators, and their statements were summarized during the preliminary hearing that took place on December 14, 2017. (Footnote 1)

If there were some conspiracy to place Fields on Fourth Street, then the conspirators surely would have arranged for him to park his car in the town center.

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A large group of counter-protesters
had walked southward from Justice Park.

Fields drove southward on Fourth Street into the crowd at 1:40 p.m.

Twenty minutes earlier, at 1:20, about 100 counter-protesters walked from Justice Park southward through the relevant blocks of Fourth Street. Specifically, they walked southward from Jefferson to Market to Main to Water Street and beyond. (Footnote 2)

Click on the map to enlarge it.

This large movement of counter-protesters might have attracted Fields to Fourth Street. I think he positioned his car to watch them walking southward.

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The counter-protesters had obtained a permit
to establish a base in Justice Park.

The counter-protesters erected some "medic tents" in Justice Park. (Footnote 3)

I suspect that the maroon van and the black truck were make-shift ambulances for these "medic tents" and that these two vehicles parked at the intersection of Fourth and Water to be ready for any fights that might happen in that area.

The reason why the counter-protesters turned northward on Fourth Street was that they were returning to their base in Justice Park. (Footnote 4)

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The counter-protesters had walked southward on Fourth Street
because of an unpredictable reason.

The 100 counter-protesters had walked southward on Fourth Street at 1:20 p.m. because they had been told that a racial confrontation was developing two blocks south of Water Street.

This situation was unpredictable. Various protesters and counter-protesters where fighting and wandering around in a rather large area of several blocks. The particular place and particular time of the supposed racial confrontation were rather random. (Footnote 5)

Therefore it's unlikely that there was any advance plan to send the 100 counter-protesters walking southward on Fourth Street at 1:20 p.m.

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Based on the above considerations, I summarize the situation as follows. Around noon, Fields walked a half-hour to get his car at McIntire Park and then drove into the town center, where he drove around for a while. At around 1:20 p.m. he saw a group of about 100 counter-protesters walking southward from Justice Park on Fourth Street, and so he idled his car at the intersection of Fourth and Market and watched them walking southward.

At around 1:40, the counter-protesters, having found that the reported racial confrontation was not happening, began walking northward on Fourth Street in order to return to Justice Park.

That is why Fields was on Fourth Street and why the counter-protesters were walking northward on Fourth Street.

The maroon van and black truck had been sent to the Fourth-Water intersection as a precaution by the people running the medic tents in Justice Park. That is why those two vehicles stood at that intersection for several minutes.

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Now I will summarize the evidence about the car's movements on Fourth Street before he drove into the crowd. Some evidence indicates that he moved forward and backward and idled for a rather long time -- perhaps two or more minutes. Perhaps he was interacting with some conspirators who were standing along the street and advising or signaling him.

People who wonder along those lines should recognize that before the car began driving into the crowd, only two moments were recorded on video (as far as the public knows). The surveillance camera of a restaurant at the intersection of Fourth Street and Main Street filmed the car drive through the intersection

1) forward and southward at about 1:40

2) backward and northward at about 1:41

The precise difference between those two moments was 70 seconds.

During that interval, Fields drove forward, southward into the crowd and then drove backward, northward away from the crowd. That forward and backward movement took about 45 seconds, according to a video made by Brennan Gilmore.

Therefore, only 25 seconds of those 70 seconds were not filmed. Perhaps Fields interacted with some conspirators along Fourth Street during those 25 seconds.

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The only other evidence about the movements of Fields' car on Fourth Street before the crash is eyewitness statements that are not available to the public. Some such statements were mentioned by Detective Steven Young during the preliminary hearing on December 14, 2017. Young apparently gave also some off-the-record statements to journalists, who therefore were able to add some details to their newspaper articles about the hearing.

However, this information about the car's pre-crash movements is so sketchy, disjointed, confused, second-hand and third-hand that it's practically worthless. Before the car was filmed by the restaurant camera driving south through the Fourth-Main intersection, we do not know any specific details about the car's movements -- when, where, how long, how far?

The publicly available evidence from the restaurant camera indicates only that Fields was south of the Fourth-Main intersection for 70 seconds, during which he drove into the crowd.

He was north of that intersection for a considerable time -- a minute or more? -- before he drove southward through the intersection. During that considerable time, he idled and drive forward and backward, according to eyewitnesses who said so to police investigators. That is essentially all the evidence about those car movements that is available to the public. We don't know any times, locations or distances.

Any speculation that Fields interacted with conspirators on Fourth Street is pure speculation, based on no facts at all.

For more details and discussion, read this blog's articles that precede this article.

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Footnote 1
Preliminary Hearing of James Fields, pages 32-43

Footnote 2
Independent Review of the 2017 Protest Events in Charlottesville, Virginia, pages 140-142

Footnote 3
Independent Review, page 123

Footnote 4
Independent Review, page 143

Footnote 5
Independent Review, pages 140-142

The Walk from Justice Park Southward on Fourth Street

For a while before 1:40 p.m. on August 12, 2017, James Fields was idling his car just north of the intersection of Fourth Street and Market Street in Charlottesville, Virginia. One block behind Fields, as he sat in his idling car at that intersection, was Justice Park, where a large group of anti-racism counter-protesters had established a base in accordance with a city permit. Within this base, so-called "medic tents" had been erected.

From south to north, the west-east streets are
Water, Main, Market and Jefferson

At about 1:40, Fields drove southward into a crowd of counter-protesters who were starting to walk northward from Water Street.

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The Independent Review of the 2017 Protest Events in Charlottesville, Virginia, reports that about 100 counter-protesters began to walk from Justice Park southward at 1:20 p.m.

VSP [Virginia State Police] helicopter footage shows a group of more than 100 counter-protesters leaving Justice Park around 1:20 p.m., walking south on 4th Street. As they passed through the intersection at Market Street, there was no officer present and they passed the small plastic sawhorse that stood to prevent southbound traffic.

They crossed the Downtown Mall and Water Street, went under the railroad tracks, then arrived at Garrett Street. Dan Haig, who was with the group from Justice Park, told us that when they arrived someone from the community ran out to tell them that the everything was safe and they should stop shouting.

The group stopped for a moment to regroup. At 1:30 p.m., the group continued west down Garrett Street, then turned right on 2nd Street SE and moved back towards Water Street.

[Page 142]

The 100 counter-protesters who departed from Justice Park at 1:20
were walking west on Garrett Street at 1:30

The 100 counter-protesters walked southward through the intersection of Fourth and Market at 1:23. By that time, a police sawhorse had been removed from the intersection's south side.

The intersection of Fourth and Market at 1:23 p.m.

The 100 counter-protesters walked from Justice Park southward to Garrett Street because they thought mistakenly that some militia members had gone to the vicinity of Friendship Court Apartments (see the bottom of this post's second map) to harass the residents, who were predominantly African-Americans. Because no such harassment was happening, the 100 counter-protesters walked north on 2nd Street, back toward the town's center. (Independent Review, pages 140-142)

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At about 1:35:30, a maroon minivan drove south from the intersection of Fourth and Market. It reached the intersection of Fourth and Water at about 1:36:00 and stopped there for five minutes.

At about 1:38:45, a black truck drove south from the intersection of Fourth and Market. It reached the intersection of Fourth and Water at about 1:39:15 and stopped alongside the maroon van.

(For the above times, see my previous article titled James Fields' Backward Movement Before He Drove into the Crowd.

I speculate that those two cars were related to the group of 100 counter-protesters that had walked from Justice Park to Friendship Court Apartments. Justice Park had some so-called "medic tents" (Independent Review, page 77), and perhaps those two vehicles were serving as make-shift ambulances and so were positioning themselves to help people who might be injured in future fights.

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It seems that the counter-protesters turned from Water Street northward onto Fourth Street because many of them intended to return to Justice Park, which they considered to be their base for the day.

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The actions of James Fields might be related to the counter-protesters' walk southward on Fourth Street. Their walk might have attracted his attention to Fourth Street. Perhaps some stragglers from Justice Park saw his backing-up and idling on Fourth Street, or perhaps some such stragglers even attacked him.

SonofNewo's Two Major Mistakes About the Charlottesville Incident

SonofNewo is the YouTube pseudonym of William Evans, who is an outstanding critic of the official account of the Charlottesville incident. (He himself has revealed his true name.)

SonofNewo's YouTube home page is there. A YouTube search for "SonofNewo Charlottesville" lists those videos.

I have been a regular viewer of SonofNewo's videos for about a half year. I generally appreciate and respect his intelligence and insights. I became interested in the Charlottesville incident because of his videos, and I have recommended to other people they they watch them.

One public service that SonofNewo has done was to make available on the Scribd website the transcript of the pretrial hearing of James Fields that took place on December 14, 2017.

I immediately began to study that transcript, and it has caused me to find more fault with SonofNewo's explanation of the Charlottesville incident. For a long time, I have sent him e-mails commenting in a civil manner on his videos. However, he has become suspicious of me, and so he recently blocked my e-mails.

For the record, I don't receive any money or other rewards for writing my opinions about the Charlottesville incident or about any other subject that I discuss in my several blogs. I never have earned any money from my blogs, and I have no plans to try to earn money from them.

Also, I don't have any private source of information. I have obtained all my information about the Charlottesville incident from the Internet -- and without any private guidance from anyone.

I have described myself in my Blogger profile.

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Here I will point out two major mistakes that SonofNewo makes in his explanation of the Charlottesville incident.

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Newspaper articles about the pretrial hearing are not better evidence about the hearing than the transcript is.

I don't know when SonofNewo obtained the hearing transcript, but I have the impression that there was a time when his only source of information about the hearing was newspaper articles about it. Since he does have the transcript now, he should treat the transcript as the most authoritative, currently available source of information about what was said and shown during the hearing  When there is a contradiction between the transcript and a newspaper article, then the transcript should be presumed correct and the article should be presumed mistaken.

I myself studied the transcript before I read any of the newspaper articles. When I did read the articles, I found that they included many mistakes about the hearing. For example, an AP News article about the hearing included the following passage:

Surveillance video from a restaurant showed the car head slowly in what Young testified was the direction of the counter-protesters, who were not in view of the camera. The car reversed before speeding forward into the frame again.

That statement is contradicted by the transcript, in which Detective Steven Young testified that the restaurant's surveillance camera filmed the car twice -- once driving forward and once driving backward. In particular, the video did not show the car "speeding forward into the frame".

I don't think that the AP News reporter is lying. Rather, I think that he simply misunderstood Young's testimony.

The above passage is merely one example of mistaken reporting about the hearing. I provided other examples in my previous article titled James Fields' Block-Long Backup on Fourth Street.

Reporters might have received and reported additional information in off-the-record conversations with knowledgeable officials. I appreciate any such additional information. However, when a journalistic report contradicts the transcript, then the journalistic report should be presumed to be mistaken.

Any journalistic report indicating that Fields' car was filmed passing through the restaurant camera's view more than twice -- 1) the first time forward southward, and then 2) the second time backward northward -- is mistaken.

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The restaurant video does not show the car driving south at a high rate of speed at 1:54:49.

During the pretrial hearing, some people in the audience caused two disturbances while the restaurant video was being shown. After the second disturbance, the prosecutor said she was resetting the video to 1:54:49.

SonofNewo thinks mistakenly that this moment in the video shows the car beginning to drive south at a high rate of speed".

The last bullet point is a mistake.

What the video actually shows after 1:43:49 is people running after the car, which already has driven southwards into the crowd and then backed up northwards through the restaurant camera's view. I explained this in my previous articles titled The Disturbances During the Pretrial Hearing and The Discrepancies Between the Camera Clocks. I will not repeat all that explanation here.

This mistake of SonofNewo was caused by his misreading of the following passage.

Judge
Quiet in the courtroom.

Bailiff
Quiet in the courtroom.

Judge
All right, he needs to go out. All of them.

Prosecutor
Your Honor, as you saw, that was the silver Dodge Challenger that drove south at a high rate of speed.

Judge
All right, once again, anybody else who makes a sound like that, out you go. All right.

Prosecutor
I’m pausing and starting again at 1:54:49 and Detective Young, you said it left view at a high rate of speed?

Detective Young
Yes. At this point, many people began to run after Mr. Fields and, at that point, encounter police as they ran east towards the police department.

(Page 32, lines 11 - 24)

When the prosecutor said Your Honor, as you saw, that was the silver Dodge Challenger that drove south at a high rate of speed, the prosecutor was reminding the judge about a set of facts that had been presented before that disturbance.

* The Dodge Challenger had driven south at a high rate of speed, according to eyewitnesses and to the helicopter video. The restaurant video had not shown the car driving southward at a high rate of speed.

* This same Dodge Challenger -- the one that had driven south at a high rate of speed according to eyewitnesses and to the helicopter video -- had been seen backing up northward in the restaurant video. Immediately when the restaurant video showed the car doing so, the second disturbance occurred in the courtroom.

* Before that disturbance in the courtroom, the restaurant video had shown that the car left view of the restaurant camera, backing up northwards at a high rate of speed.

Because of the courtroom disturbance, the prosecutor reset the video to 1:54:49, which was after the car already had backed up northward through the restaurant camera's view. Then the prosecutor showed the video's final part, which showed people running after the car.

I understand why SonofNewo interprets the above passage as he does, but his interpretation is mistaken. This one mistake has led to other mistakes in his analysis.

The Discrepancies Between the Camera Clocks

During the pretrial hearing of James Fields, case agent Detective Young said that the clock

* of the helicopter camera was approximately 12 minutes fast (page 27, lines 9-10)

* of the camera of the Red Pump Kitchen (RPK) was approximately 13 minutes fast (page 29, lines 4-6).

Young did not specify what was the "correct" clock to which these two cameras were compared, but I assume that it was the clock of the Charlottesville Police Department's dispatch clock. Anyway, Young considers some one clock to be correct, according to which other clocks are deemed to be fast or slow.

At one point in his testimony, Young indicated that Fields drove into the crowd at approximately 1:40.

At approximately 1:40, many witnesses and victims describe the Dodge Challenger drive at a very high rate of speed, south on Fourth Street, striking many people and striking the white [Camry] ragtop sedan.

In all these estimates, Young uses the word approximately.

* The car crashed into the crowd at approximately 1:40

* The helicopter camera was approximately 12 minutes fast.

* The RPK camera was approximately 13 minutes fast.

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In another couple of passages, Young indicated that the car crashed into the crowd before 1:40. Since he rounds these times to the minute, he means that the impact happened between 1:39:30 and 1:40:00.

When talking about the RPK camera, Young said

We confirmed through the personnel at Red Pump Kitchen that this footage is ... approximately thirteen minutes fast, but if you fix the time ... just before 1:40 it becomes relevant.

(Page 29, lines 4 - 8)

The above statement indicates to me that Young had calculated that Fields drove into the crowd just before 1:40.

In another passage, Young mentioned that the police dispatcher broadcast the first report of the incident at approximately 1:40.

Prosecutor
At some point throughout the day, did you hear radio traffic for an incident that had occurred here in the City of Charlottesville at approximately Fourth Street and Water Street?

Detective Young
Yes.

Prosecutor
What were you able to hear just for purposes with what you did next?

Detective Young
So, the time I heard radio traffic, I was actually on foot at Emancipation Park. I heard an officer claim that many people were reporting that a vehicle struck a large crowd of people and that the vehicle fled the scene. ...

Prosecutor
Do you recall the time that this radio traffic was being related to you?

Detective Young
Approximately 1:40 p.m.

I assume that Young verified that this police report was broadcast at approximately 1:40, and so the car must have crashed into the crowd just before 1:40.

By interviewing the police officer who reported the crash to the radio dispatcher, Young could have determined that that police officer reported the crash less than, say, 30 seconds after the crash occurred.

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Let's suppose for the sake of argument that, in precise times, Fields drove into the crowd at 1:39:30, that a police officer at the scene sent a radio report to the radio dispatcher at 1:39:45, and then the radio dispatcher broadcast the first report, which Young himself heard, at 1:40:00.

The only precise times that Young would know for sure would be the 1:39:45 and the 1:40:00 times, because those two precise times would have been recorded by the dispatch system in accordance with the dispatch clock.

The 13:39:30 time would be an estimate that the police officer at the scene later told Young that he sent a radio report to the dispatcher about 15 seconds after Fields drove into the crowd.

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The helicopter's video shows Fields driving into the crowd. If Young determined that moment to be 12:39:30, and if the helicopter camera's clock showed the moment to be 13:51:30, then Fields could estimate that the helicopter's camera was running approximately 12 minutes fast, compared to the dispatch clock.

The helicopter crashed. If the helicopter camera survived and its clock continued to run, then Young could have compared the helicopter camera's clock to the police dispatch clock and measured the time discrepancy.

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During the investigation, Young could have compared the RPK camera's clock to the police dispatch clock.

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However, Young was not able to synchronize all these events and clocks precisely, to the second. That is why Fields had to say rather imprecisely that

* Fields drove into the crowd just before 13:40

* Young heard the dispatcher broadcast at approximately 1:40

* Although Fields' car, after the crash, backed northwards into the RPK camera's view when its clock showed 13:54:06, this camera's clock ran approximately 13 minutes fast.

If I correct the RPK time by precisely 13:00:00 minutes, then the corrected time is 13:41:06. However, the actual precise time might be as much as 30 seconds earlier or later, because Young's 13-minute discrepancy is rounded to the whole number 13.

In other words, although the RPK camera showed the car backing northward into the camera's view at the camera's precise clock time of 13:54:06 (corrected precisely to 13:41:06), the actual precise time might have been 30 seconds either way -- anywhere between 13:40:36 and 13:41:36.

Roughly in time, Fields drove into the crowd just before 13:40 and then backed northward into the RPK camera's view at approximately 13:41.

The Disturbances During the Pretrial Hearing

During the pretrial hearing of James Fields, there were two disturbances in the audience while case agent Detective Young was showing the video from the surveillance camera of the Red Pump Kitchen (RPK). The hearing transcript indicates the disturbances but does not reveal what the disturbers were saying. The transcript includes the following two passages:

Judge Downer
Quiet in the courtroom.

Bailiff
Quiet in the courtroom.

Judge Downer
All right, he needs to go out. All of them.

(Page 32, lines 11 - 14 )

... and ...

Judge Downer
All right, once again, anybody else who makes a sound like that, out you go. All right.

(Page 32, lines 17 - 18)

The disturbances are explained in a newspaper article titled James Fields of Ohio now facing first-degree murder charge in Charlottesville car attack Aug. 12 written by Ned Oliver and published by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The article includes the following passages.

The video was too much for some of the victims of the Aug. 12 car attack to bear: James Alex Fields drives his 2010 Dodge Challenger toward a crowd of protesters, stops, reverses, and then, with even more room to build up momentum, speeds toward the mass of people.

Prosecutors played the footage during a court hearing Thursday to help make the case for upgraded charges against Fields — who now stands accused of first-degree murder, which requires premeditation ....

It was the first time the video, captured by a restaurant’s security cameras, had been viewed publicly, and the courtroom stirred with anger at the moment when Fields is seen backing away in what prosecutors presented as an apparent windup to the attack.

Three of about 20 victims who attended the proceedings abruptly left as the judge and bailiffs called for order.

“I’ve got to go; take me out,” shouted one man who was struck in the attack ...

The disturbers were angry because Fields allegedly had backed up to give himself a better starting position before he drove into the crowd.

Right before the first disturbance, Detective Young had said:

At this point, you’ve got many witnesses testify that the Challenger began to back up, assuming that it would head back onto Market Street and leave the area.

(Page 32, lines 8 - 10)

Then Young continued showing the RPK video to the court. When the video showed the car backing up -- after it had crashed into the crowd -- through the RPK camera's view, the second disturbance happened.

It seems from the above article and from the transcript that people left the courtroom only after the first disturbance.

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The second disturbance happened as the RPK video showed the car backing up after it had crashed into the crowd.

Because of the second disturbance. the last part of the video was shown to the court again. The last part showed the video after Fields had backed up through the camera's view. In the video's last part, no vehicles were seen.

Prosecutor
I’m pausing and starting again at 1:54:49 and, Detective Young, you said it left view at a high rate of speed?

Detective Young
Yes. At this point, many people began to run after Mr. Fields ...

(Page 32, lines 19 - 23)

Because the RPK clock ran approximately 13 minutes fast, the time 13:54:49 is corrected to 13:41:49.

In an earlier statement, Young had said that the car backed up through the camera's view at 13:54:06 (corrected to 13:41:06).

In other words:

* At 13:54:06 (13:41:06), the car, after the crash, backed up into the view of the RPK camera.

* After 13:54:49 (13:41:49), no cars were seen in this last part of the video. Rather, people were seen running after Fields.

It is not true that the car began to drive forward again at 13:54:49 (13:41:49).

Fields' Drive Forward After His Long Backup

In a previous post titled James Fields' Block-Long Backup on Fourth Street, I argued that Fields first pre-crash backup was quite long and placed him north of Market Street. I provided wto speculative illustrations. In the first illustration, the car begins its backup close to Main Street, and in the second, the car begins in the middle of the Main-Market block. Both illustrations show the backup ending north of Market Street.

A backup beginning close to Main Street

A backup beginning in the middle
of the Main-Market block

When Fields did this long backup, his car still had not passed by the surveillance camera of the Red Pump Kitchen (RPK). In other words, Fields had turned from Market Street south onto Fourth Street and had driven much of the way to Main Street, but not far enough to enter the RPK camera's view. Then Fields stopped and backed up through the Fourth-Market intersection and then idled his car north of that intersection.

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Fields' car was seen idling north of the Fourth-Market intersection by two men, Chris Mahony and Brennan Gilmore. Mahony's public statements have been collected in a SonofNewo video, which I will embed below in this post here. Based on Mahony's statements, I speculate the following sequence of events.

* Mahony and Gilmore were walking east on the north side of Market from Emancipation Park toward the Fourth-Market intersection. When they reached the the Fourth-Market intersection, they noticed that Fields' car was idling north of the intersection although the traffic light was green.

* Mahony and Gilmore turned south onto Fourth Street.

* About 20 seconds later, Mahony saw the Pie Chest cafe on the street's west side. Mahony went into the cafe while Gilmore continued to walk south.

Click on the image to enlarge it.

* About 45 seconds later, Gilmore passed Main Street and stopped well south of the Fourth-Main intersection.

* Fields drove his car south and through the Fourth-Main intersection. The RPK camera's clock was at 13:52:56. Since the clock ran approximately 13 minutes fast, the time is corrected to 13:39:56.

* At the moment when the car passed beyond the camera's view, the 1:10 minute interval began.

* Fields stopped behind Gilmore, who was standing in the middle of the street and looking south toward the counter-protesters, who had begun to walk north on Fourth.

* Mahony came out of the Pie Chest and began walking south to catch up with Gilmore.

* After idling for a short while, Fields backed up his car into the Fourth-Main intersection and stopped.

* Fields revved his engine loudly. Surprised, Gilmore jumped to the side of the street and turned around to look. Gilmore began filming as Fields' car sped by, south toward the crowd of counter-protesters.

* Mahony heard the car fly over a speed bump. He began to rush south.

* After crashing into the crowd, Fields backed up.

* The 1:10 interval ended as the car backed north through the Fourth-Main intersection. The RPK clock showed  13:54:06, which is corrected to 13:41:06.

* Mahony still is in the middle of the Main-Market block, and he photographs the car as it continues to back up toward Market.

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In Gilmore's video, the duration of Fields' drive south and then back into the Fourth-Main intersection is about 45 seconds.

Since the car was out of the RPK camera's view for 70 seconds (1:10 minute), the car was idling and backing up behind Gilmore for about (70 - 45 = ) 25 seconds.

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SonofNewo collected the following statements made publicly by Mahony. (Click on any image to enlarge it.)

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Shortly after the incident on August 12, 2017, Mahony was standing in the Fourth-Main intersection, where he told a reporter the following.

Mahoney's first statement on August 12

The car was, we [Brennan and Chris] were walking down the road [points up 4th Street]. You can see back up there, we were walking down the road to join these protesters, down here [points at crash shite]. And we saw the car whizz straight past us, full throttle effectively ... Maybe 40-50 miles per hour. I usually work in kilometers. It slammed into the crowd. And then we started moving quickly down to try to help people, and we saw it slam back through.

When Mahony said we saw the car whizz straight past us, he meant that Brennan saw that happen.

-------

Later on August 12, Mahony said the following.

Mahony's second statement on August 12

We were walking down the road as Brennan mentioned [points north up 4th Street]. But we came around the corner, and you could see the car just over the other side of the road, just sat there, looking down the road. And as you said, the protesters were coming down 4th Street. So I thought that's a bit strange, there didn't seem to be any other cars stopping him from going. And then, of course, moments later we heard a car going incredibly fast, down the road, and saw it plow into the crowd, and then it reversed back, and then some of us ran after the car to take a photo.

Some people claim that a video shows Mahony standing in the Main-Market block and photographing Fields' car as the car backs up during Fields' getaway.

Mahony might be the man in the purple shirt photographing the car.

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On August 13, Mahony said the following:

Mahony's first statement on August 13

We [Brennan and I] walked past the car, which was stopped at the top of the hill, looking down the street toward the protesters. And I thought it was strange, because it was at an intersection, it had a green light, but it wasn't going through the intersection, and there were no other cars around. And I didn't think of it again, and began walking down the road towards the anti-racism protesters, who we were going to join. And then maybe 10 to 20 seconds later, the car flew past us.

The last sentence does NOT fit with my hypothesized sequence of events. It's fair for someone to say that Mahony might be lying here for some reason.

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Later on August 13, Mahony said the following:

Mahony's second statement on August 13

We [Brennan and I] actually walked past the car, which was at the top of the hill looking down the street at the protesters. And I thought to myself, "It's strange", because the car was at an intersection but wasn't driving through the intersection. It had a green light, and it was just sat there. And I didn't think much more of it, but then 20 seconds or so laer, it came screaming past us and into the crowd of protesters.

Again, this last sentence about the 20 seconds does NOT fit with my hypothesized sequence of events.

This statement is a major problem for my explanation. A possible explanation is that Mahony has told his story so many times that he began tell his story in a rushed and sloppy manner.

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Still later on August 13, Mahony said the following.

Mahony's third statement on August 13

First I saw the car at the top of the hill, before it came down. We walked past it. And I thought it was very strange that the car wasn't going through the intersection. It was sat there at the traffic light, no other cars around, but with a green light. Tinted windows.

And I didn't think too much. I walked down the road, and maybe 10 to 20 seconds later, I saw a coffee shop that I thought might be open, walked off the middle of the road, and then heard it hit the speed bump and sort of bounce.

And then I looked back and saw it go through the next block and then plow into the group of people.

I was right next to your previous guest, Brennan, who was taking the footage at the time.

Here Mahony clarifies that the "10 to 20 seconds" is the duration of his walk from the Fourth-Market intersection to the Pie Chest coffee shop.

======

For a different interpretation of the evidence, watch the following two SonofNewo videos.

At about 5:38 in the second video, SonofNewo shows where the RPK camera was mounted.

Detective Young's Statement About the Surveillance Camera of the Red Pump Kitchen

I just now noticed in the transcript of the pretrial hearing of James Fields the following statement by Detective Steven Young about the Red Pump Kitchen's (RPK) surveillance camera that filmed a video that he showed during the hearing. The statement is on page 29, lines 13-17. Click on the image to enlarge it.

... if you can pause it [the RPK video]. This is 4th Street NE. Just south of here is the pedestrian mall, and what you're seeing now is a camera affixed to Red Pump Kitchen, facing the 100 block of 4th Street NE.

======

This causes a problem for me, because I have guessed that the camera covered roughly the following area.

My resolution of this problem is that I think Young meant to say that the restaurant -- not the camera -- faced the 100 block of Fourth Street.

However, Young indeed might have meant that the camera was pointed toward that 100 block. If so, then my guess about the camera's coverage is mistaken.

=======

Correction on March 3, 2018

At about 5:38 in the following video, SonofNewo shows where the RPK camera was mounted.

James Fields' Block-Long Backup on Fourth Street

During the preliminary hearing of James Fields on December 14, 2017, case agent Detective Steven Young mentioned several times that Fields backed his Dodge Challenger car up on Fourth Street before he drove into the crowd.

In one passage, Young describes two backups -- the second of which was the backup after the crash into the crowd. The first backup seems to be from the vicinity of the Main Street crossover to the vicinity of the Market Street intersection.

[First backup, before the crash into the crowd]

Many witnesses I spoke to noticed a gray Dodge Challenger slowly drive on Fourth Street from Market Street towards Water Street at a slow pace. At one point it was idling near the [Main Street] crossover on Fourth Street, and this is confirmed  through video. One witness I spoke to actually commented that the Dodge Challenger was an unfortunate driver and is stopped here on the downtown mall, but it's a good thing there’s no one at the intersection of Fourth and Market and that the Dodge can simply back up and leave the area.

Several witnesses claim and confirm through video that no one was at the intersection near Fourth and Market. There were some people but no crowds whatsoever at Fourth and Market, which is where the Dodge Challenger came from.

Many witnesses saw the Challenger back up towards Market Street, thinking that the Challenger would just simply get back onto Market and leave the area.

[Second backup, after the crash into the crowd]

At approximately 1:40, many witnesses and victims describe the Dodge Challenger drive at a very high rate of speed, south on Fourth Street, striking many people and striking the white ragtop sedan. Right after he initially strikes the crowd, he backs up at a high rate of speed. This is when people start to hit the back windshield of the Dodge Challenger. This doesn’t stop Mr. Fields. He continues to back up at a high rate of speed. ... He backs onto Market Street and takes off from there
(Page 20, line 13, through Page 21, line 19)

In another passage, Young describes a backup -- before the crash into the crowd -- that began south of Main Street. Before this passage, Young described how Fields' car drove south past the surveillance camera of the Red Pump Kitchen (RPK) restaurant, which was located at the northeast corner of the intersection of Fourth and Main. When the car drove past, the camera's clock showed the time 1:52:56 (page 31, lines 11-15). Since that clock ran 13 minutes fast, I will correct the time to 1:39:56. Now I will quote the passage:

And as you can see, he proceeds south on Fourth Street onto the crossover and many witnesses said he then made his way to the 100 block of Fourth Street SE, which is where he stopped. ... At this point, you’ve got many witnesses testify that the Challenger began to back up, assuming that it would head back onto Market Street and leave the area.

This is not the same before-the-crash backup that Young described in the first passage that I quoted above.

* The first before-the-crash backup began north of Main Street and ended north of Market Street.

* The second before-the-crash backup began south of Main Street and ended inside the intersection of Fourth and Main.

The first, long backup from Main to Market

The second, short backup from the Main-Water block
into the Fourth-Main intersection

In the second, short backup, the car did not back northwards past the RPK surveillance camera's view, which covered roughly the following area.

Soon after the second, short backup, the car drove forward, crashed into the crowd, and backed up past the RPK camera when that camera's clock showed 13:54:06, which is corrected by 13 minutes to 13:41:06.

=====

During his testimony, Young did not describe the length of either backup, but journalists who attended the hearing learned in off-the-record conversations that one backup was quite long -- about a city block. However, journalists added details in published articles.

However, the articles included mistakes.

The best evidence currently available to the public is the hearing transcript. When details in the articles are contradicted by details in the transcript, then those details in the article should be presumed to be mistaken.

=====

CNN reported -- in an article titled Charge upgraded against suspect in Charlottesville rally killing, written by Kaylee Hartung and Darran Simon and published on December 15 -- that was based on an off-the-record statement from "authorities".

Prosecutors played the surveillance video from a Charlottesville restaurant in addition to a video from a Virginia State Police helicopter monitoring the events.

Authorities say the footage captures Fields' Challenger stopping about a block and a half away from protesters, reversing, then driving into the crowd and speeding away in reverse. Fields was apprehended about four minutes after the collision, about a mile away.

This CNN article indicates that the first, long backup began "about a block and a half away from protesters", which means that it began in about the middle of the the Main-Market block.

Authorities told CNN that one backup began about
a block and a half away from the protesters.

This backup was not captured by by either the RPK restaurant's camera or by the helicopter's camera. Perhaps the CNN misunderstood the off-the-record statement given by the "authorities".

If this backup indeed was captured by a camera, then it was the surveillance camera of the Pie Chest that is located  on the west side of Fourth Street (see the above image). For information about that camera, watch the following SonofNewo video.

Perhaps CNN receive the off-the-record statement from the FBI.

======

The Washington Post reported -- in an article titled Charge upgraded to first-degree murder for driver accused of ramming Charlottesville crowd, written by Paul Duggan and published on December 14 -- that Fields' car backed up more than a block

The video shows counter-protesters gathered at Fourth and Water streets in downtown Charlottesville. A black pickup truck approaching the crowd pulled to the side of the road. A maroon van then stopped on the street in front of the crowd, and a Toyota Camry stopped behind the van.

Fields’s Dodge approached the Camry from behind at a moderate speed. It then backed up, traveling more than a block, before accelerating forward at a rapid clip, ramming into the back of the Camry. Heyer and numerous other people were standing near the vehicles, and the collision sent bodies flying.

Nowhere in the hearing transcript did Young say that the car backed up "more than a block", so any such detail could have been stated to Duggan only off-the-record.

If the car indeed backed up more than a block, then this backup must have been the first backup, which therefore began in the Main-Market block and ended north of Market. If so, then Duggan is mistaken that this backup happened after Fields' car closely followed the Camry past the RPK camera.

======

The Richmond Times Dispatch reported -- in an article titled James Fields of Ohio now facing first-degree murder charge in Charlottesville car attack Aug. 12, written by Ned Oliver and published on December 14 -- reports incorrectly what the RPK camera showed.

The video was too much for some of the victims of the Aug. 12 car attack to bear: James Alex Fields drives his 2010 Dodge Challenger toward a crowd of protesters, stops, reverses, and then, with even more room to build up momentum, speeds toward the mass of people. ....

Prosecutors played the footage during a court hearing Thursday to help make the case for upgraded charges against Fields — who now stands accused of first-degree murder, which requires premeditation and carries the possibility of a life sentence. The attack killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injured dozens.

It was the first time the video, captured by a restaurant’s security cameras, had been viewed publicly, and the courtroom stirred with anger at the moment when Fields is seen backing away in what prosecutors presented as an apparent windup to the attack.

Oliver is mistaken. The RPK camera shows Fields' car backing away only after it drove into the crowd.

During the hearing, Young testified that this second pre-crash backup was described by eyewitnesses (rather than being seen in video shown during the hearing) and that it happened during the 1:10 minutes when the car was not in the RPK camera's view.

=====

AP News reported -- in an article titled Suspect in Virginia car attack faces upgraded charge, written by Sarah Rankin and published on December 15 -- that the car made a series of movements, according to "authorities".

Authorities say the 20-year-old, described by a former teacher as having a keen interest in Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler, drove his speeding car into a group of counterprotesters ....

Surveillance video from a restaurant showed the car head slowly in what Young testified was the direction of the counter-protesters, who were not in view of the camera. The car reversed before speeding forward into the frame again.

The video that Young showed during the hearing did not show Fields' car speeding forward into the frame of the RPK camera after a pre-crash backup. Judging from the article, Rankin seems to have attended the hearing, but her reporting about this point is mistaken.

Rankin too seems to have received an off-the-record statement from "authorities", but her report is muddled, because she did not understand that there were two pre-crash backups. The correct sequence of events is:

* The car headed slowly in the direction of the counter-protesters

* The car reversed

* The car drove forward into and through the RPK camera's frame

* While outside the camera's frame for 1:10 minutes, the car backed up, sped forward into the crowd, and backed up again.

* The car sped backwards through the RPK camera's frame.

======

The fact that the car's first pre-crash backup went north of Market Street is confirmed by two eyewitnesses -- Chris Mahony and Brennan Gilmore -- who have said that, while walking south on Fourth Street, they passed Fields' car while it was idling north of the Fourth-Market intersection.

As Mahony and Gilmore were walking south on Fourth and approaching Market Street, their view was similar to the following screenshot from GoogleMaps (click on image to enlarge it).

The view southward down Fourth Street from a position
north of  Market Street

It seems that Fields' car attracted the attention of Mahony and Gilmore because the car was idling in the middle of Fourth Street and not driving southward through the Fourth-Market intersection even though the light was green.

Fields' Walk to McIntire Park Before He Drove To Fourth Street

At the pretrial hearing of James Fields, case agent Detective Steven Young was cross-examined by Fields' defense attorney Denise Lunsford. The cross-examination (transcript pages 32-43) indicated the following circumstances.

The main reason why why Fields traveled from his Ohio home to Charlottesville, Virginia, was to listen to and perhaps question someone (not identified) who was scheduled to speak at the Unite the Right protest there. Fields did not belong to the group -- called Vanguard America -- that organized the protest.

Fields parked his car -- and perhaps stayed overnight -- at McIntire Park and then walked to Emancipation Park (aka Robert Edward Lee Park). The walk from one park to the other takes about a half hour. After the protest turned into a riot, Fields walked with three other men back to McIntire Park, got into his car, and drove back to the vicinity of Emancipation Park.

The three other men -- who were questioned by investigators after the incident -- said that they did not know Fields previously and that he impressed them as being relatively moderate and mild-mannered compared to most of the Unite the Right protesters.

The men might be able to confirm whether or not Fields' shirt was wet with urine when he parted from them in McIntire Park.

The walk from Emancipation Park to McIntyre Park is shown on the following image from Google Maps.

The walk from Emancipation Park (aka Lee Park)
to McIntire Park

This walk makes it unlikely that Fields was supposed to drive onto Fourth Street at a certain time in a conspiracy.

James Fields' Legal Defense in Relation to the Intersection of Fourth and Market

During the pretrial hearing of James Fields that was conducted on December 14, 2017, his defense attorney Denise Lunsford provided indications of his legal defense. When cross-examining case agent Detective Steven Young, Lunsford suggested that Fields' shirt had been soaked with urine a short time before he drove into the crowd.

Defender Lunsford
And when you found him there or when he was there after he had been taken into custody, he appeared to have a yellow stain on his shirt, correct?

Detective Young
That’s correct.

Defender Lunsford
Was anyone able to determine what that was?

Detective Young
As of now, no.

Defender Lunsford
Was there a smell to that stain?

Detective Young
Yes, there was a smell from urine.

(Page 40, lines 8 - 15)

Following Lunsford's cross-examination of Young, prosecutor Nina-Alicia Antony conducted a redirect examination in which she suggested that no urine was thrown onto Fields near the intersection of Fourth Street and Market Street.

Prosecutor Antony
Detective Young, Ms. Lunsford asked you about the smell of the substance that was on Mr. Field’s shirt and you indicated that it smelled of an odor of urine?

Detective Young
Correct.

Prosecutor Antony
Is it fair to say there was no evidence during the course of your investigation prior to the crash, of any individual surrounding Mr. Field’s car, throwing anything on him while he was in his car or in the area of Fourth Street and Market?

Detective Young
That’s correct. There’s no indication.

Prosecutor Antony
And there was no one blocking his egress onto Market once he got to Fourth and the crowd was in front of him?

Detective Young
Correct.

(Page 44, lines 10 - 22)

Fields says urine was thrown onto him
at the intersection of Fourth and Market

The above questioning indicates to me that

* Fields has said that urine was thrown onto him at the intersection of Fourth and Market

* This accusation is denied by the eyewitnesses at the intersection of Fourth and Market

* Fields has said that he was afraid to back up to the corner of Fourth and Market

In a trial of Fields, the credibility of the Fourth-Market eyewitnesses will be challenged by Fields' defense attorney.

=====

The pretrial hearing indicated that after the riot at Emancipation Park (aka Lee Park), Fields walked to McIntire Park -- about a half-hour walk -- where his car was parked. Fields then drove his car back to the downtown area where the protesters were walking around.

If Field' shirt had been soaked with urine during the riot, then he had an opportunity to wash and to put on a clean shirt before he drove back into the downtown area.

Fields walked from Emancipation Park to McIntire Park with three other men. They might be able to confirm that Fields washed and put on a clean shirt before he drove back into town and eventually was arrested wearing a urine-soaked shirt.

Thus the testimony of the Fourth-Market eyewitnesses might be contradicted. If those eyewitnesses lied about the urine, then they might have lied also about other elements of the incident.

=====

Those eyewitnesses were standing at the corner of Fourth and Market and looking south toward Main.

The view from Fourth and Market southward toward Main
(Click on the image to enlarge it.)

It seems from Detective Young's testimony that the eyewitnesses standing at the intersection of Fourth and Market were there for quite a long time. They saw drive ...

* drive into the intersection from Market Street and then turn south onto Fourth Street,

* drive south slowly,

* idle his car for a while,

* perhaps back up once or twice,

* drive into the crowd,

* back up from Water Street to Market Street,

* drive east on Market Street and turn right onto Ninth Street.

Why were those people standing at Fourth and Market for such a long time? Perhaps they knew that they would see something happen on Fourth Street if they kept standing and watching southward from that intersection..Perhaps they knew that their subsequent eyewitness statements about what they saw would be useful to someone.

=====

In later November 2017, the Hunton and Williams law firm published an Independent Review of the 2017 Protest Events in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Review's discussion of the situation at Fourth and Market includes the following passages.

The the intersection of 4th Street NE and Market Street had two impediments to traffic: a traffic barrier blocking any southward movement on 4th Street NE and an officer and squad car blocking any westward movement on Market Street. The traffic plan called for Officer Jeff Sandridge to man that post.

Late in the week, two developments changed that plan. First, the Incident Management Team advised Captain Lewis that Lieutenant Tito Durrette had too many roles for August 12. Second, Captain Shifflett found out that Officer Tammy Shiflett, a school resource officer, was available to work ...

So on August 11, Lewis replaced Sandridge with Tammy Shiflett .... Officer Shiflett was told about her assignment at Market Street and 4th Street NE, but she did not receive any instruction other than that she would be “doing traffic.” She understood that her role was to prevent “anything coming down [westward on] East Market Street” to Emancipation Park.

Video footage shot around 10:30 a.m. on August 12 shows Officer Shiflett standing at her post next to her squad car in Market Street as scores of Unite The Right attendees streamed past her towards Emancipation Park. The video also shows that the southbound route on 4th Street SE was obstructed by a single wooden sawhorse that spanned only the middle third of the road.

The Review includes the following photograph and caption.

Click on the above image to enlarge it.

The Review discussion of the Fourth-Market intersection continues .

Tammy Shiflett — the school resource officer stationed at 4th Street NE and Market Street — was standing alone with no protective gear. She felt she was in danger. As people started to pass, they made profane and aggressive statements toward her. She smelled pepper spray in the air. Just as Sergeant Handy and his unit arrived at the Market Street garage, Shiflett radioed Captain Lewis and said, “They are pushing the crowd my way, and I have nobody here to help me.” Lewis radioed to Sergeant Handy and instructed him to help Shiflett.

Sergeant Handy and Officer Logan Woodzell started to move towards Shiflett’s location, and Handy radioed Shiflett to walk towards them. Woodzell’s body camera footage shows Shiflett leaving 4th Street and jogging to the two officers. But she forgot to lock her car, so Handy instructed her to go back and move her car. Shiflett hustled back to the car, got in, and moved it out of the intersection to Market Street near the parking garage.

Officer Shiflett ultimately ended up with Lieutenant Jones as he handled the Deandre Harris incident. Lieutenant Jones told us that he was asked by either Handy or Woodzell to let Officer Shiflett stay with him because she did not have any protective gear. Neither Shiflett nor Jones notified the traffic commander or the Command Center that she was no longer a her assigned post at 4th Street NE and Market Street. As a result, all that remained there was a wooden sawhorse barricade.

Why did the police decide to prevent vehicles from driving south on Fourth Street from Market Street to Market Street? Did someone know beforehand that the anti-racism protesters eventually would march north on Fourth Street.

=====

The following photo shows a certain Dwayne Dixon carrying an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle about a block from Fourth Street, where James Field was waiting in his car at least 1:15 minutes before he drove into the anti-racism protesters.

Dwayne Dixon carrying an AR-15 during the Charlottesville incident

The following screenshot of Dixon's Facebook page shows him boasting:

I used this rifle to chase off James Fields from our block of 4th St. before he attacked the marchers to the south.

I used this rifle to chase off James Fields from our block of 4th St.
before he attacked the marchers to the south.

Dixon allegedly has removed that post from his Facebook page.

These images and allegations about Dixon are from an article titled  James Fields Was Chased With a Semi-Automatic Rifle Before Crash, written by Jason Kessler.

The Idlings and Backups of James Fields' Car

In his testimony at the preliminary hearing of James Fields on December 14, 2017, case agent Detective Steven Young mentioned that, while on Fourth Street and before driving into the crowd, Fields stopped and idled his car at least once and drove backward at least once.

Young stated that Fields did so because Young wanted to inform the court that Fields drove into the crowd deliberately. The idling and backing up gave Fields time to think about his decision to drive forward into the crowd. From Young's perspective, specifying exactly where and when Fields did the idling was rather irrelevant to the issues of that legal proceeding.

Indeed, when Fields' lawyer, Denise Lunsford, cross-examined Young (pages 32 - 44), she did not ask him to elaborate about the idling or backing up.

=====

However, people who suspect that Fields might have been guided by someone else would like to know more details about the idling and backing up -- where, when, how long, how many times?

Were the idling and backing up related to the presence on Fourth Street of someone who was guiding Fields?

=====

During the preliminary hearing, someone in the courtyard caused a disturbance when Young was testifying about a place where Fields stopped his car and began to back up. While Young is being questioned by the prosecutor Nina-Alicia Antony before Judge Robert H. Downer, Jr.

Young is showing the court the video from the surveillance camera of the Red Pump Kitchen (RPK) restaurant. The video has just shown a white Camry drive past the RPK, followed closely by Fields' car.

Detective Young
And as you can see, he [Fields] proceeds south on Fourth Street onto the crossover and many witnesses said he then made his way to the 100 block of Fourth  Street SE, which is where he stopped.

Prosecutor Antony
About how long is Mr. Fields Challenger out of view?

Detective Young
Approximately, a minute and ten seconds.

Prosecutor Antony
And during this time, had the vehicle struck the crowd yet?

Detective Young
No. At this point, you’ve got many witnesses testify that the Challenger began to back up, assuming that it would head back onto Market Street and leave the area.

Judge Downer
Quiet in the courtroom.

Bailiff
Quiet in the courtroom.

Judge Downer
All right, he needs to go out. All of them.

Detective Young
Your Honor, as you saw, that was the silver Dodge Challenger that drove south at a high rate of speed.

Judge Downer
All right, once again, anybody else who makes a sound like that, out you go. All right.

(Page 31, line 24, through Page 32, line 18)

I suspect that someone in the courtroom audience said something aloud Brennan Gilmore, a suspected character in this incident, who had been standing in the area, described here by Young, where Fields stopped and began to back up.

[Correction on March 1, 2018 -- The courtroom disturbances were not about Gilmore.]

Gilmore made the following video.

During the four months between the incident and the preliminary hearing, a controversy developed about whether Gilmore might have been an accessory to Fields.

Gilmore has said that he was standing in the middle of Fourth Street before this video began. Perhaps Fields stopped there because Gilmore was standing in his way and then drove forward as soon as Gilmore got out of his way.

======

During that disturbance in the court, the RPK video continued to run. Nobody in the court was paying to the video, however, because of the disturbance. After the trouble-makers were removed from the courtroom, Young and the court resumed watching the RPK video. A minute had passed since the disruption began, and so just now the video was showing Fields' car -- after being unseen for 1:10 minutes -- pass by the RPK camera northwards and backwards.

Judge Downer
Quiet in the courtroom.

Bailiff
Quiet in the courtroom.

Judge Downer
All right, he needs to go out. All of them.

[The court resumes watching the RPK video.]

Detective Young
Your Honor, as you saw, that was the silver Dodge Challenger that drove at a high rate of speed.

Detective Young (elaborated)
Your Honor, as you saw, that [the car now driving northwards and backwards in the RPK video] was the silver Dodge Challenger that [during the preceding 1:10 interval] drove at a high rate of speed [into the crowd].

Judge Downer
All right, once again, anybody else who makes a sound like that, out you go. All right.

(Page 32, lines 11 - 18)

In the above passage, I have edited Young's statement to clarify his intended sense.

Again someone in the courtroom audience spoke aloud. During this new disruption, the RPK video continued to run. After the disruption ended, prosecutor Antony showed the RPK's video last part, during which no vehicles were seen. The RPK camera's clock ran 13 minutes fast, so in the below passage I show the correction to real time.

Judge Downer
All right, once again, anybody else who makes a sound like that, out you go. All right.

Prosecutor Antony
I’m pausing and starting again at 1:54:49 [corrected, real time = 1:41:49].

Detective Young, you said it [Fields' car] left view at a high rate of speed?

Detective Young
Yes. At this point, many people began to run after Mr. Fields and, at that point, encounter police as they [people on Main Street] ran east towards the police department.

(Page 32, lines 17 - 24)

The RPK video did not show any cars after 1:54:49. The absence of additional cars was demonstrated to the court by running the video to its end.

======

The RPK video showed Fields' car pass by twice (pages 28-31) :

1) driving south when the camera's clock showed 13:52:56 [13:39:56]

[not seen for 1:10 minutes]

2) backing up north when the camera's clock showed 13:54:06 [13:41:06]

A few seconds after the court saw the second passing on the video, the courtroom was disrupted again. After that disruption ended, the video was restarted at 13:54:49 [13:41:49] so that the courtroom could watch the last part, during which no vehicles were seen.

======

If you re-watch the above video made by Gilmore, you will see in the period 0:35-0:38 a black SUV parked along the left side of Fourth Street. That vehicle is a suspected element in this incident, and so Fields' idling or backing up in its vicinity might be relevant.

Watch the following video, made by SonofNewo, from 20:30 to 24:30.

=====

There are no videos (known to the public) that show Fields' car idling or backing up. No such video was shown during the pretrial hearing. Unless Young has seen some such video, his findings that the car idled or backed up are based entirely on eyewitness statements.

Any idlings or backups (other than getaway backup after the drive into the crowd) happened entirely within the areas north or south of the RPK camera's view, which I think covered the area illustrated below.

No backups before Fields drove into the crowd
were seen by the RPK surveillance camera,
which filmed the area marked by the red lines

It's clear from Young's testimony that eyewitnesses said that Fields began to back up at least once in an area south of the Main Street crossover. It's not clear whether eyewitnesses said that Fields also idled there.

It is not clear from Young's testimony whether eyewitnesses said that Fields idled or backed up in the area north of the RPK camera.

Fields did not idle or back up his car within the RPK camera's view before he drove into the crowd.