A man who was wearing a swastika armband earlier this week was attacked and robbed Thursday afternoon, Gainesville police said.
Police said the man was jumped at the University of Florida non Northwest 13th Street and Eighth Avenue. Two men jumped out of a red pickup truck and stole the man's jacket and swastika, police said, then drove north on Northwest 13th Street.
Officers said they are searching for the car and the attackers. The victim suffered minor injuries.
According to The Alligator, the university's student news publication, students gathered around Michael Dewitz two days after he was first seen wearing the swastika.
By noon Thursday, about 100 protestors surrounded the man.
The Lubavitch-Chabad Jewish Student and Community Center set up a table near the protest as a resource for Jewish students, the article reported.
Sid Dobrin, chair of the UF department of English, said UF has the fifth largest Jewish student population among U.S. universities and that Dewitz’s display was unacceptable.
Download the Action News Jax News app and First Alert Weather app
Cox Media Group
