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3 National Socialist Movement men arrested for brutally assaulting Jewish student at neo-Nazi rally

David Newstat, a University of Central Florida student, said that the suspects beat him up and spit on him

ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: Three men have been arrested by Florida deputies for assaulting a Jewish college student at a neo-Nazi rally. Burt Colucci, 45, and Joshua Terrell, 46, are each charged with battery with a hate crime enhancement. Jason Brown, 47, is charged with grand theft. Colucci, Terrell, and Brown are members of the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi group.

Orange County Sheriff's Office took to Twitter to reveal the charges. "We will not stand for hate. On 1/29, demonstrators wearing Nazi insignia & yelling anti-Semitic slurs got into a physical fight w/ a passerby. Joshua Terrell, 46, & Burt Colucci, 45, have been arrested for Battery w/ a hate crime enhancement & Jason Brown, 47, for Grand Theft," they wrote.

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OCSO received calls about 20 demonstrators rallying at Alafaya Trail and Waterford Lakes Parkway. on January 29. According to witnesses, the group members rallied displaying Nazi insignia and yelling anti-Semitic slurs at passersby and passing vehicles. A fight broke out at one point between the demonstrators and a passerby.

David Newstat, a University of Central Florida student, said that at one point he drove by the group and called out their hatred. In retaliation, one of the neo-Nazis spits on Newstat, who is Jewish, while others surrounded his car. "I'm trying to go to the store, to Target, and I'm coming back home, and I'm being berated by Nazis," Newstat said. "My grandfather was a survivor. Other members of my family were survivors of the Holocaust and migrated to the U.S. after. It's very sad to see people like this can be so ignorant and can have so much hatred built up in their hearts."

Newstat then reportedly stepped out of the vehicle and began recording the group. At one point, he pushed a demonstrator who spat on him. He claimed that he was then punched, kicked and pepper-sprayed by the demonstrators. 

Investigators who watched footage of the incident confirmed that Terrell repeatedly punched Newstat while Colucci pepper-sprayed him. Following the assault, Brown stole the victim's $1,000 Apple iPhone 13, which was later found "damaged beyond repair," affidavits released by the sheriff's office said. When the group gathered on an overpass the next day,  authorities from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and the Florida Highway Patrol reportedly disbanded them.

With anti-Semitic attacks on the rise, a woman charged three Jewish kids outside a Brooklyn synagogue, spitting on them and telling them that “Hitler should've killed you all" last month. The woman was spotted in a surveillance camera, wearing an orange hoodie, black leggings and black Uggs. She stormed up to three boys, all of whom are Jewish, on Avenue P near Coleman Street in Marine Park, cruelly telling them, "Hitler should have killed you all. I’ll kill you and know where you live."

In another similar unprovoked attack earlier this month, two Jewish men were attacked and called 'dirty Jews' by two attackers in Brooklyn. Blake Zavadsky and his friend Ilan Kaganovich, both 21 years old, were at the Foot Locker in Bay Ridge shortly before 11 am on Sunday, December 26, when they were attacked by the two perpetrators. “They asked us what we were doing in their neighborhood,” Zavadsky said. “They called us ‘dirty Jews'."