Orlando Sentinel

◆ Three men are arrested

- By Michael Williams Staff Writer

and charged with attempted murder after they allegedly shot at a man after white nationalis­t Richard Spencer’s University of Florida speech.

Soon after Richard Spencer’s speech at the University of Florida ended Thursday, three Texas men chanted Nazi slogans before one pulled out a gun and shot at a group near the campus, the Gainesvill­e Police Department reported.

Police said in a news release Friday that Tyler Tenbrink, 28, William Fears, 30, and Colton Fears, 28, all of Pasadena, Texas, were arrested on charges of attempted murder. They were being held in the Alachua County Jail.

The shooting, in which no one was hurt, was the only serious incident reported in the aftermath of the white nationalis­t’s appearance, which drew an estimated 2,500 counterpro­testers to the campus.

Police say the trio were in a Jeep and shouted “Heil Hitler” at a group waiting at a bus stop on Archer Road at about 5:30 p.m.

One of the men at the bus stop pulled out a baton and hit the rear window of the Jeep, authoritie­s said.

Police say Tenbrink then showed a handgun while the others encouraged him to “kill them.” He fired a single shot, police say, missing the group and striking a nearby building.

The men fled in the Jeep, but were located at about 9 p.m. on Interstate 75, about 20 miles north of Gainesvill­e, authoritie­s said. Police say two of the three have connection­s to “extremist groups.”

During an interview earlier Thursday, Tenbrink said he wasn’t a neo-Nazi but added that if Adolf Hitler had “changed his narrative a little bit, he’d have taken over the whole freaking world.”

William Fears said “most of everything” he hears from Spencer resonates with him.

“Whites should be able to advocate their own identities and interests without making them a social outcast,” he said.

Authoritie­s said two others were arrested, including one for carrying a gun on campus and another for resisting an officer without violence.

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