The following article by Susan Svrluga and Lori Rozsa was posted on the Washington Post website October 20, 2017:
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Three men were charged with attempted homicide after they argued with a group of people protesting a white nationalist’s speech and fired a shot at them, police said Friday.
About 90 minutes after Richard Spencer’s speech Thursday at the University of Florida — which generated so much controversy that the governor declared a state of emergency days before the event — a silver Jeep pulled up to six to eight protesters near a bus stop and confronted them, according to Gainesville Police Department spokesman Sgt. Ben Tobias.
The men, whom police identified as white nationalists, threatened the group, making Nazi salutes and shouting chants about Hitler, police said.
One of the people in the group, who were in their 20s and heading home after protesting, hit the Jeep with a baton.
Tyler Tenbrink, 28, of Richmond, Tex., jumped out with a gun, authorities said. According to the Alachua County sheriff’s arrest report, Colton Fears, 28, and William Fears, 30, of Pasadena, Tex., encouraged Tenbrink to shoot, yelling, “I’m going to f—— kill you,” “Kill them” and “Shoot them.”
Tenbrink fired a single shot that missed the people, police said, and hit a nearby building.
“Once the altercation began, it started ramping up very quickly until the gunshot,” Tobias said.
Wesley Durrance, a 2016 graduate of the University of Florida, had just said goodbye to his friends — who were sitting at the bus stop with their signs from the protest — when he heard a loud pop. “Clearly a gunshot,” he said.
He turned around and saw chaos. “Some people were running, one of my friends was still sitting there, my friend who was shot at was standing there,” Durrance said. “Everybody was freaking out, but he was pretty calm, considering. I mean, they had just tried to kill him.”
The men then fled in the Jeep, but one of the people who had been targeted got the license plate number and reported it to police. An off-duty sheriff’s deputy who had worked at the Spencer event found the Jeep.
Gainesville police confirmed Friday that the arrests were related to the event.
Tobias said all three admitted to having been involved in the shooting when they were stopped by police on Interstate 75 about 15 miles north of Gainesville. Tenbrink admitted he was the shooter, according to the Alachua County sheriff’s arrest report.
Spencer’s speech was repeatedly disrupted by people shouting at him, but the protests outside remained largely peaceful, despite tensions between his supporters and more than 2,500 counterprotesters.
“I hesitate to make a comment on an incident that just happened,” Spencer said Friday evening. “If it actually happened as it is described in the news, then it is an absolutely terrible incident and it can’t be defended. But I think we should all remember that it is a developing story.”
He urged supporters to avoid violence.
“There are time when one can rightfully defend oneself, but these kinds of confrontations should be avoided. The eyes of the world are upon us, and we need to behave in the way that is of the highest standards,” Spencer said.
Tenbrink told The Washington Post on Thursday that he came from Houston to hear the speech. “I came here to support Spencer because after Charlottesville, the radical left threatened my family and children because I was seen and photographed in Charlottesville,” Tenbrink said, referring to the “Unite the Right” rally in August that ended in violence.
“The man’s got the brass to say what nobody else will,” Tenbrink said, referring to Spencer.
View the post here.