NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Dramatic video obtained by NewsChannel 5 shows why a Canadian neo-Nazi now faces new charges for an assault back in July on the streets of Nashville.
That video, captured by a group of neo-Nazis themselves, led to new charges being filed last month against Ryan McCann. The 30-year-old Ontario man already faced an aggravated assault charge stemming from his confrontation with a Nashville bartender.
McCann was part of the so-called Goyim Defense League, which NewsChannel 5 Investigates had confronted during the neo-Nazis' extended visit to Nashville last summer.
Armed with Nazi flags and thrusting their arms into the air with Nazi salutes, the group tried to provoke people with protests downtown, at a local synagogue and along a Nashville interstate.
The newly obtained video depicts another incident that, police say, occurred the night of July 13 in a dark parking lot on 10th Avenue South.
It shows the neo-Nazis surrounding and taunting a shirtless 20-year-old man who stood beside a pickup truck. The Goyim Defense League gang suggested the man was Jewish.
"Do you see the six on the nose?" one of the neo-Nazis asked pointing to the man and referring to an antisemitic ethnic stereotype regarding the shape of a Jewish nose.
"You see it? There's the six."
McCann was among those trading insults with the victim.
"Are you going to do something? Are you going to do something?" the 20-year-old asked.
"No, you're acting like you're going to do something," McCann answered.
Eventually, the man the Goyim Defense League had surrounded told them to "kick rocks."
"You've got some balls, bro," one of the neo-Nazis told the man. "But you should really get rid of the white guilt, bro. I mean, it's pathetic, bro. Real pathetic, man."
The man then demanded, "Get away from the truck. Thank you. I don't like people near the truck."
"Is it your truck?" one followed up.
"Yeah."
One of the neo-Nazis shot back, "That's not his truck."
That's when McCann invited the man to touch him, and the man seemed to think it was all a joke.
"You guys are lucky," the man told the group, which erupted into laughter.
Then, suddenly, McCann spun around and slammed his elbow into the side of the man's head. McCann then kicked the man, who attempted to run away.
One of the neo-Nazis body-slammed the victim into his truck, as others called out: "Don't jump, don't jump, don't jump."
McCann chased the man around the truck.
"Back the f*** up," the man called out. "Back the f*** up."
It's not clear from the video if he might have been brandishing some sort of weapon, but the neo-Nazis retreated. After the victim drove off, the Goyim Defense League celebrated.
"He got touched first," one claimed, suggesting McCann was responding in self-defense.
"White f***ing power, bro," another called out as the neo-Nazis delivered their stiff-armed salutes.
"Sh*t! Got that f***ing spinning elbow on that m*****f***er!
As the group laughed, a bearded neo-Nazi boasted that he had wanted to do even more.
"I was trying to grab him, and they were like, 'Don't jump him,'" the man said, erupting into a growl. "I would have f***king choked that m*****f***er out."
That comes as McCann's attorney, Olin Baker, tries to convince Criminal Court Judge Steve Dozier to dismiss another charge stemming from the incident that had occurred the next day in which McCann is accused of using the pole of his Nazi flag to assault a downtown bartender.
In a hearing last week, Baker noted that video from the second incident on July 14 shows the bartender, Deago Buck, threw the first punch as the neo-Nazis were walking down the street.
Prosecutors are not pursuing charges against Buck, and Baker has filed a motion to dismiss the charge against McCann based on selective prosecution.
"The only party here that was following the law was Mr. McCann. He was assaulted, and then he was charged because of his unpopular speech. That’s all that happened," Baker told NewsChannel 5 Investigates.
Video reviewed by NewsChannel 5 Investigates shows Buck punching another man, not McCann.
But prosecutors noted in a previous hearing that Buck tried to run away and was chased down by the neo-Nazis.
That's when the video shows McCann jabbed Buck with the flagpole before someone pulled him away.
McCann's attorney hopes the judge will decide this was just a man with unpopular opinions defending himself and his friends.
Another hearing on that motion is scheduled for next week.
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Do you have information that would help me with my investigation? Send me your tips: phil.williams@newschannel5.com
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