A group of men claiming to be neo-Nazis have been apprehended after they attacked a Jewish man in Florida on Jan. 29.
ABC News reports that the incident happened outside a shopping plaza last weekend when they received a report of around 20 people demonstrating while dressed in Nazi insignia. Police arrested 45-year-old Burt Colucci, 46-year-old Joshua Terrell, and 47-year-old Jason Brown, who are part of the National Socialist Movement. Colucci, the group leader, and Terrell have been hit with charges of battery with a hate crime enhancement, and Brown was given a grand theft charge.
The man attacked was 24-year-old David Newstat who told WOFL-TV that he was driving by the neo-Nazi group they started spitting on him and encircling around his car.
“I’m trying to go to the store, to Target, and I’m coming back home, and I’m being berated by Nazis,” Newstat explained. “My grandfather was a survivor. Other members of my family were survivors of the Holocaust and migrated to the U.S. after. It’s very sad to see people like this can be so ignorant and can have so much hatred built up in their hearts.”
He then exited his vehicle and began taking footage of the group, which is when he said he pushed the person who spat on him, which is when other demonstrators ambushed him, pepper-spraying him and stealing his phone.
“I’m literally Jewish and I got attacked, assaulted, pepper-sprayed, spit on, you name it,” Newstat said. Footage of the incident showed that Terrell was beating Newstat and Colucci pepper-sprayed him. Brown is the person who stole Newstat’s phone.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office issued a statement on Friday, writing, “We will not stand for hate.”
ABC reports that antisemitic flyers were disbursed to homes in two largely Jewish South Florida cities in the week prior to the demonstration.
