Neo-Nazi protester who struck bartender with flagpole arrested for aggravated assault: Police

Background: A street brawl in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, following march of neo-Nazis associated with the Goyim Defamation League on July 14, 2024 (WTVF/X.com). Inset: Ryan McCann (Metropolitan Nashville Police Department).

A man from Canada bearing a Nazi flag in downtown Nashville on Sunday has been arrested for felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after he used the flagpole to strike a bartender, according to police in Tennessee .

When announcing the arrest of Ryan Scott McCann, 29, of Ontario, the Metro Nashville Police Department said McCann struck local bartender, Deago Buck, 19, with the flagpole after the bartender entered into a “physical altercation with members of the neo-Nazi protest group” that had formed on Broadway and 3rd Avenue in Nashville on July 14.

McCann was detained and ordered held on $81,000 bond, court records show. He was also charged with disorderly conduct.

McCann will next appear before Judge Marcus Floyd on Tuesday. It was unclear if he retained an attorney as of Monday.

Police said McCann was part of the group carrying Nazi flags that “spread white supremacist rhetoric” much to “the displeasure of passersby.”

“A number of police officers, cognizant of free speech issues, were close by watching the group’s actions. The group left Broadway, and headed south on 3rd Avenue. As they walked, Deago Buck, 19, an employee of one of the local bars, became involved in a physical altercation with the protestors,” police said. “As the parties became separated, McCann was seen striking Buck in the face and in the ribs with the flagpole.”

Buck was arrested on Sunday and charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct and resisting police. His bond was set at $2,000 and records show Buck’s next court appearance will be August 9. He too will appear before Judge Floyd.

Deago Buck booking photo courtesy of Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.

John Drake, the chief of police for the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, said he “condemned the hate being spread by the neo-Nazi group.”

According to Nashville Public Radio outlet WPLN , this was the second consecutive weekend that white supremacist groups carrying neo-Nazi regalia appeared in the city’s downtown area.

It was the third such event this year.

The group that showed up on Sunday in Nashville is known as the Goyim Defense League, WPLN reported. They are described by the Anti-Defamation League as a “loose network of individuals connected by their virulent antisemitism” and are allegedly led by Jon Minadeo II of Florida.

The outlet reported that members of the group could be heard chanting “Sieg Heil” while raising their hands in the air for a Nazi salute.

Last weekend, members of the white supremacist group known as Patriot Front were seen marching through downtown Nashville with faces covered and chanting after piling out of a U-Haul rental truck. They were also seen carrying Confederate flags.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center , Patriot Front identifies as a white nationalist hate group that evolved from a group known as Vanguard America that sprouted up following the deadly Unite the Right rally in 2017 that killed one woman, Heather Heyer, and left 35 other people injured.

The Tennessean reported that Patriot Front did not have a permit for the July 6 march through downtown Nashville to the steps of Tennessee’s Capitol.

A small group of neo-Nazis associated with a white supremacist organization known as Blood Tribe were seen marching through downtown Nashville in February, NBC News reported.

During the February event, neo-Nazi demonstrators carried flags with swastikas on them as they chanted but ultimately no arrests were made.

Nashville police said in February that “some persons on Broadway challenged the group” and then the group left in a U-Haul box truck and departed from Davidson County.

Bill Lee, the Republican governor of Tennessee, has condemned the episodes and last weekend after members of Patriot Front marched through Nashville, he said: “I think we’ve seen anti-Semitism rise up all across this country, unfortunately and sadly.”

“We should stand against it at every time and every place,” Lee said.

Lee did not immediately return a request for comment on Monday.

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