The Columbus Division of Police released body camera footage and identified one of the 11 neo-Nazis who marched through the Short North this month, shouting racial and antisemitic slurs.
That man was Anthony James Altick of Louisiana, who drove the UHaul van with the other members seated inside the cargo bay. After being pressed, Altick produced an ID card to the officers who pulled them over while the other men in the vehicle refused.
The body camera footage showed officers interacting with witnesses and then detaining the masked men in front of a home in the Short North. The footage later shows police pulling over and detaining the men less than an hour later after it was alleged the men assaulted someone as they marched through the neighborhood.
The White House and other local leaders weighed in, denouncing the march.
The men were verbally combative to officers in the footage, denied they did anything wrong and refused to produce their identification.
At one point while being detained, the man driving the vehicle accidentally pepper-sprayed his partner in the passenger seat of the van.
The police report identified the group as "Hate Club 1844."
After police initially detained the men, one Black Columbus police officer questioned the Nazis about why they antagonized the neighborhood.
"I mean I definitely feel you and your First Amendment rights to say whatever this nonsense is, but come on man. The Buckeyes are playing man. Come on bro," the officer said.
While being detained, Altick and the other neo-Nazis defended themselves by claiming what they said was protected by their First Amendment rights. They also denied doing anything wrong.
The group said people pulled guns on them and threw cans at them.
One member of the group also admitted to pepper-spraying a group of "large Black men" they alleged were getting too close to them.
Video obtained by Columbus Police shows a member of the neo-Nazis pepper-spraying a crowd in front of Oddfellows Liquor Bar in the Short North.
As the Nazis walked back to their vehicle, another officer remarked sarcastically "Protected by a bunch of Black officers. Ain't America Great?" That remark elicited laughs from the other officers.
Altick was arrested in Orlando, Florida last year for allegedly hanging antisemitic hate banners along a bridge in the city. Altick's criminal case is still ongoing in Orange County in the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida on a first-degree misdemeanor charge of displaying an image on a building without the owner's consent.
Altick is being represented in court by attorney Augustus Invictus. The far-right attorney was a speaker at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 where three people died after white supremacist demonstrators clashed with counterprotesters.
Invictus was arrested and convicted on charges that he racially intimidated people when he marched with a large group of men holding tiki torches at the University of Virginia.
Altick and the other neo-Nazis are not facing any charges yet for the march in Columbus. Police said they are still investigating.
Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein's office said charging the group with any crimes is up to the Columbus Division of Police.
"City Attorney Klein stands ready to prosecute if a case does come across his desk," Klein's spokesman Pete Shipley said.
