We simply don't know all the facts, I personally don't see that he intentionally went to kill people. Looks to me like he panicked when the car was being attacked by baseball bats, pretty sure most would do the same.
I don't know why he would be driving at a high rate of speed on streets that were crowded with people. And then he fled the scene. That doesn't look good for him. He could have waited for the cops and then told them he lost control of the car because he felt threatened.
"Mr. Fields was driving a Dodge Challenger “at a high rate of speed” in downtown Charlottesville at about 1:45 p.m., a spokeswoman for the city said in a statement. He drove the car into a sedan, which hit a minivan that was in front of it. The impact of the crash pushed the sedan and the minivan into a crowd of pedestrians. Mr. Fields fled the scene in the Challenger but was stopped a short time later by the Charlottesville police."
