White nationalist speaker held gun on wife, kidnapped kids in Rock Hill SC, cops say
A white nationalist who was a main speaker at a deadly rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 is facing domestic violence, kidnapping, and weapons charges in South Carolina after holding a gun to his wife’s head, police said.
Augustus Sol Invictus, 36, was arrested Monday in Brevard County, Fla., on outstanding warrants from an incident in York County, South Carolina on Dec. 12, said Lt. Michael Chavis of the Rock Hill Police Department.
Invictus is accused of attacking a woman described in police reports as his wife, and taking their children to Florida, Chavis said.
Invictus threatened his wife with the gun before taking the children, according to a Rock Hill police incident report. The wife told police she escaped from Invictus in Jacksonville, Fla, then came back to Rock Hill, according to the incident report.
The police report was filed on Dec. 22, Chavis said. After an investigation, a judge issued arrest warrants for Invictus, Chavis said. The warrants are for domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature, kidnapping, and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, Chavis said.
Invictus was captured at a mall in Melbourne, Fla., according to the Miami Herald.
His arrest in Florida has been reported nationally by CBS, Newsweek, and other national media outlets.
The arrest report in Brevard County shows Invictus to be an out of state fugitive. He is scheduled for court on Jan. 15, according to the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.
Rock Hill officers are expected to go to Florida to extradite Invictus to face the charges, Chavis said.
It remains unclear if Invictus will fight extradition.
Domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature carries a potential penalty of 20 years in prison under South Carolina law. Kidnapping can carry as much as 30 years for a conviction, state law shows.
Invictus spoke at the Unite the Right rally in August 2017 in Charlottesville, Va., where Heather Heyer was killed and several people were hurt, after James Fields rammed his car into a crowd.
Invictus ran for Senate in Florida in 2016. During his 2016 Senate campaign, Invictus drew attention for his claim that he killed a goat and drank its blood in a pagan ritual, The Miami Herald reported. He acknowledged that he is friends with white supremacists, and, though he denied his affiliation then, was praised and credited by white nationalist leader Richard Spencer as writing the first draft of the Charlottesville statement, according to the Miami Herald.
Invictus, an Orlando-area attorney, now runs The Revolutionary Conservative, a website marketed as an alternative to conservative media that “play the victim” and calls for a violent uprising, the Miami Herald reported.
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This story was originally published January 2, 2020 at 2:19 PM with the headline "White nationalist speaker held gun on wife, kidnapped kids in Rock Hill SC, cops say."