Three men charged in shooting after Richard Spencer speech

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.

Shortly 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 a group of six to eight protesters near a bus stop and started to argue with them, according to the Gainesville Police Department.

The three white nationalists threatened the group, making Nazi salutes and shouting chants about Hitler, police said. One of the people hit the Jeep with a baton, and it pulled over. Tyler Tenbrink, 28, of Richmond, Texas, jumped out with a gun. A second passenger got out, and Colton Fears, 28, and William Fears, 30, of Pasadena, Texas, encouraged Tenbrink to shoot, according to the Alachua County Sheriff's arrest report, yelling, 'I'm going to f--- kill you,” and 'Kill them,” and 'Shoot them.”

Tenbrink fired a single shot that missed the people, police said, and hit a nearby building.

The three 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 searched for and found the Jeep. The men were arrested about 20 miles north of Gainesville.

Spencer's speech was repeatedly disrupted by people shouting at him, but the protests outside remained largely peaceful, despite tensions between his supporters and the thousands of counterprotesters.

'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 told The Washington Post on Thursday. 'The man's got the brass to say what nobody else will.”

On Thursday, Tenbrink told the Post inside Spencer's event that he had come from Houston for the speech, and that all he cares about are the 14 words, a reference to a white-supremacist slogan: 'We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”

'That doesn't mean I hate all black people I see,” Tenbrink said.

'And homosexuals, if they want to be homosexual, keep it to yourself. Nobody wants to see that s - - - ,” he said.

The Gainesville Sun reported that William Fears had told them Thursday that he believed James Fields, the man accused of driving his car into a crowd of people protesting the 'Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, killing one woman and injuring others, wasn't unjustified.

'It's always been socially acceptable to punch a Nazi, to attack people if they have right-wing political leanings,” the Gainesville Sun quoted Fears as saying. 'Us coming in and saying we're taking over your town, we're starting to push back, we're starting to want to intimidate back. We want to show our teeth a little bit because, you know, we're not to be taken lightly. We don't want violence; we don't want harm. But at the end of the day, we're not opposed to defending ourselves.”

Gainesville police confirmed Friday the arrests were related to the event.

Spencer's speech was his first on a university campus since he led a torchlight march through the University of Virginia in August, with followers chanting, 'You will not replace us,” and 'Jews will not replace us.” That was the beginning of a weekend of clashes between white nationalists and white supremacists and counterprotesters that turned fatal in Charlottesville the next day.

After that violence, University of Florida officials denied Spencer's request to speak on campus - as did several other public universities - 'amid serious concerns for safety.”

Spencer, who leads the National Policy Institute, was not invited by the university or a student group. University of Florida leaders have repeatedly rejected his message as hateful. But under threat of a lawsuit, university officials acknowledged Spencer's First Amendment right to speak at a campus venue they rent out, and began planning extensive security.

Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency in the days before the speech, hundreds of law-enforcement officers converged on campus and the public university expects its total cost for security measures to exceed $600,000.

At least two of the three who were arrested have demonstrated connections to extremist groups, police said.

Tenbrink, Colton Fears and William Fears were charged with attempted homicide and are in the Alachua County Jail. Tenbrink faces additional charges for possession of a firearm by a felon.

Tenbrink admitted that he was the shooter, according to the Alachua County Sheriff's arrest report.

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Washington Post staff writer Joe Heim and researcher Jennifer Jenkins contributed to this report.