Three charged in shooting after Spencer talk

Three supporters of white nationalist Richard Spencer were arrested Thursday in connection with an incident in which a shot was fired, according to Gainesville Police Department arrest reports.

William Henry Fears, 30, of Pasadena, Texas; Colton Gene Fears, 28, also of Pasadena; and Tyler Eugene Tenbrink, 28, of Richmond, Texas; were charged with attempted homicide and held in the Alachua County jail. Tenbrink was also charged with being a felon in possession of a weapon.

At 5:20 p.m. Thursday, a vehicle with William Fears, Colton Fears and Tenbrink pulled up to a bus stop at 3315 SW Archer Road where a small group of people were sitting. One of the men began cheering Adolf Hitler and chanting.

The victim hit the vehicle’s rear window with a baton, and the car sped away before abruptly stopping.

Tenbrink got out of the car with a handgun. William Fears and Colton Fears yelled, “I’m going to f---ing kill you,” and “Shoot them.”

Tenbrink fired one shot at the victim. The shot missed and struck the building that was directly behind the victim.

The Fears brothers and Tenbrink fled eastbound in the vehicle. Alachua County Sheriff’s Office deputies found the men driving north on Interstate 75, and stopped the silver Jeep near the 405 mile marker. Officers said Tenbrink told them he fired the shot.

Tenbrink’s bond was set at $3 million. William Fears and Colton Fears each are held on $1 million bond.

Wesley Durrance, a 27-year-old Gainesville resident, told The Gainesville Sun several of his friends were shot at because they were carrying anti-Nazi signs protesting Spencer’s UF visit.

Durrance said his friends told him the people in the car the shots were fired from shouted “Sieg Heil” after asking them if they had seen someone named “Kyle.”

Dan Baker, 30, from Tallahassee, was with seven other people after leaving the protests outside the Phillips Center, where Spencer had finished speaking. The group split up, and four stayed at the bus stop while Baker and three others turned back to return to the protests.

Baker, a U.S. Army veteran, recognized the sound of a gunshot, and when he turned around, the four people had their hands in the air and were scrambling behind a Dumpster.

“As soon as I heard it, I just went into that mode,” he said.

Robin Dorian, 31, said at first she thought the shooting was a car accident. She said while the groups were carrying their protest signs, the signs weren’t raised, and the groups weren’t actively protesting.

“We were just walking with them,” Dorian said.

Baker said the shooting made him “furious.”

Earlier Thursday, Tenbrink told The Sun he had driven to Gainesville from Houston to see Spencer speak.

“This is a mess. I’m disappointed in the course of things,” he said. “It appears that the only answer left is violence, and nobody wants that.”

William Fears told the Sun that he believed James Fields, who drove his car into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, wasn’t unjustified. He also said alt-right movement supporters were “pushing back” against leftist supporters.

“It’s always been socially acceptable to punch a Nazi, to attack people if they have right-wing political leanings,” Fears said. “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.”

Fears was arrested in 2009 on an aggravated kidnapping charge after abducting a female acquaintance in Texas, media reports show.