Joshua Lee Witt of Sheridan, Colorado, has been arrested and charged with falsely reporting a crime after claiming he’d been stabbed by a black man over his “neo-Nazi” haircut.
The 26-year-old faces up to a year in jail and a $2,650 fine if convicted.
From the Denver ABC affiliate:
At the time, Witt told officers a black man in his 20s came up to him outside the restaurant and asked, “Are you one of them neo-Nazis?” and tried to stab him. Witt said he had gotten a defensive wound while trying to stop the stabbing, and posted pictures of his bloody hand to Facebook. He said the man ran off afterward.
Witt, who has a haircut similar to the way some on the “alt-right” have been wearing theirs lately, claimed his haircut may have been the cause for the alleged attack.
But police weren’t convinced, and reviewed surveillance video in the area, and never saw a black man running from the scene. They also discovered that a transient man matching the description lived nearby. They interviewed him and discovered he wasn’t involved.
Police then reviewed more surveillance video—this time from a nearby sporting goods store.
That video showed Witt had bought a small knife from the store just minutes before the attack.
Last Thursday, Sheridan police confronted Witt with the new information, and Witt admitted he’d accidentally cut himself with the knife inside his car, then made up the story about the attack.
