Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

3 Men Gave Nazi Salutes And Shot At Protesters After Richard Spencer’s Speech

Three supporters of white nationalist Richard Spencer were arrested Thursday for their role in a shooting that followed an afternoon speech by Richard Spencer at the University of Florida.

The three men accosted a group of protesters outside Spencer’s speech and shouted chants about Hitler and gave Nazi salutes, according to a release from the Gainsville Police Department. One of the men, 28-year-old Tyler Tenbrink, reportedly fired a handgun at the crowd. No one was hit, and the single shot struck a building nearby.

Tenbrik and the two other men, 30-year-old William Fears and 28-year-old Colton Fears, are all from Texas and were arrested Thursday night about 20 miles from Gainsville, where the altercation took place.

Wesley Durrance, a 27-year-old Gainesville resident, told The Gainesville Sun that his friends were shot at because they were carrying anti-Nazi signs protesting Spencer’s visit. Durrance said his friends told him the men shouted “Sieg Heil” before firing the shot.

Contact Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected]

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.