He once tried to sneak a rally into Philadelphia and failed miserably. Now he is on his way to jail for popping off a round in Charlottesville.
Richard Wilson Preston, Jr., the Baltimore, Maryland founder and imperial wizard of the Confederate White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is facing a maximum of ten years in prison after he pled no contest today as charged to firing a gun within 1,000 feet of a school during the tragic “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia Aug. 12. This marks the third conviction in a week of a neo-Fascist connected to the rally.
Preston, 53, planned on going to trial hoping to persuade a jury that he had acted in defense of himself or others, which was an argument that failed with Jacob Goodwin and Alex Michael Ramos last week with their convictions for their roles in assaulting Charlottesville resident DeAndre Harris. Abandoning that strategy, Preston, who’s attorney Elmer Woodard also represented Goodwin and Ramos, chose to plead no contest, not admitting to guilt, but recognizing that the state had enough evidence to convict him. Immediately afterward, Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Richard E. Moore found Preston guilty.
The incident occurred when Preston, who was wearing a tactical vest, was walking through a crowd when he turned around, and noticed an African American counterprotester wielding an aerosol can shooting out large flames. Preston then shouted, “Hey, nigger!” and fired one shot at him, but missed. The video showing the shooting was not seen until weeks later, after which Preston was arrested. Corey Long, 24, who was allegedly holding the aerosol can, faces charges of misdemeanor assault and disorderly conduct. He is scheduled for a June court hearing.
Preston also appeared in video threatening to shoot counterprotesters as he stood next to Alex Ramos and behind William Fears, who was arrested in October along with his brother Colton and friend Tyler Tenbrink after a Tenbrink allegedly fired a weapon at counterprotesters after Richard Spencer’s speech at the University of Florida in Gainesville, but is now in jail in Texas for assaulting his girlfriend.
In 2014, Preston led a handful of Klansmen to the Tacony neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania attempting to hold a rally in support of William Walters, the Grand Dragon of the The East Coast Knights of the True Invisible Empire who was kicked out of the Tacony/Holmesburg Town Watch when his activities were discovered. It was meant to be a clandestine rally that was not announced publicly, but a tip alerted residents and antifa who were able to mobilize against them when they arrived at the Tacony Public Library.
Preston is due to be sentenced tomorrow.
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