White Supremacist Arrested Days After Dodging Murder Charge

Prosecutors said they didn’t have enough evidence to try him for a murder attempt on protesters. Days later, he was arrested in a domestic violence case.

KELLY WEILL
04.19.18 4:47 PM ET

Days after authorities dropped charges against a white supremacist for the attempted murder of anti-racist protesters, they arrested him for alleged domestic violence.

William Fears IV was one of three men arrested for allegedly trying to shoot people who had gathered to protest a speech by the white nationalist Richard Spencer at the University of Florida in October. Fears, his brother Colton, and their friend Tyler Tenbrink allegedly gave Nazi salutes and shouted pro-Hitler slogans, until the Fears brothers allegedly urged Tenbrink to shoot at the protesters. Tenbrink missed, and the three men were charged with attempted murder. But if Fears goes to prison, it will be for a domestic violence charge from several days before the shooting.

Fears has a history of violence at white supremacist events. In an essay for Vice, journalist Erin Corbett described Fears as sexually harassing her at Unite the Right, a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August. Corbett described Fears as marching with the fascist group Vanguard America. Also among the Vanguard America contingent that day was James Fields, a man accused of driving a car into a crowd of anti-racist protesters at the rally, killing one and injuring many more.

During that deadly rally, Fears reportedly urged fellow white nationalists to violence. “Shoot!” he reportedly shouted, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Fire the first shot of the race war!”

More:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-supremacist-let-off-for-attempted-murder-arrested-for-domestic-violence