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A Georgia man dressed in a Nazi officer’s uniform was arrested Friday after he allegedly smashed a glass beer pitcher in the face of a female University of Georgia student and broke her nose outside of a bar. The incident was captured in a video and took place later Thursday night in Athens, Ga., after Kenneth Leland Morgan, 32, allegedly tried to enter Cutters Pub while wearing a Nazi uniform. He was confronted by a group of people outside the bar who prevented him from entering. “Get the f–k out, get the f–k out, you don’t f–king wear that s–t,” a woman yells at Morgan as she appears to push him away so he can’t enter the bar, according to footage from a video taken at the scene. At the end of the video, Morgan appears to smash the beer pitcher into another woman’s face after she attempts to remove the man’s red armband. Athens-Clarke County jail records show that Morgan was booked into custody early Friday on suspicion of two misdemeanour counts of simple battery and one felony count of aggravated assault. In a statement, the University of Georgia (UGA) confirmed that Morgan was not a student and was not affiliated in any way with the school. “His actions, which were caught on videotape, are appalling, and we are grateful to Athens-Clarke County police officers for swiftly apprehending and arresting him,” the university told CBS News Atlanta. “Members of UGA’s Student Care and Outreach team are in contact with our student who was assaulted in this off-campus incident, as well as other students who witnessed this heinous antisemitic behavior.” The woman, named Grace Lange, said that she suffered a broken nose, according to The Red and Black, a non-profit, student-led news source from Athens and University of Georgia communities. “I had been at Cutters for around 20 minutes, after grabbing one beer, I sat outside with friends for 10 minutes before my friend, who is Jewish, noticed the man in a full Nazi uniform complete with a red armband with the swastika,” Lang, 23, told The Red and Black. She said that she noticed the man get into “a yelling match” with “two women smaller than him.” “I get up and go to get in between them, and use my body as a blockade to keep him from coming in. I reach to rip off the armband, as that is the identifying factor that changed it from a soldier ‘costume’ to an unacceptable display of hate,” Lang said. She said the confrontation escalated quickly after she intervened. “We struggle for a couple seconds, but he immediately swings a large glass pitcher into the left side of my face,” Lang said. “He is grinning ear to ear the entire time, including while assaulting me. “He continued to try and pull and hit me but was pulled off by my friends. I was immediately disoriented and don’t remember him continuing to assault me.” Lang added that the bar they were at doesn’t have glass pitchers and she had “no clue where he brought it from.” “My nose was broken by the pitcher and I had to get four stitches on my bridge when I went to the emergency room, and it’s difficult to breathe through right now,” Lang said. “I have a large welt on my left cheek, my eye is black and swollen shut and my neck and head have ached since.” Lang said that Morgan was arrested while she was waiting for emergency medical services to arrive outside the bar. Bryce Fowler, general manager at Cutter’s Pub, told The Red and Black that Morgan was never allowed inside the bar. “I wanted to clarify that the individual was denied entry into the bar and was instructed to leave,” Fowler said. “At Cutter’s Pub, our top priority is customer safety and we will continue to do everything we can to make everyone feel safe and welcomed. We pride ourselves on being a diverse crowd and serving everyone who walks through the door with respect.” The Young Democrats of UGA and ACC condemned the incident in a statement posted to their Instagram account. “The Young Democrats of UGA and ACC are greatly disturbed to learn that early Friday morning, 32-year-old Kenneth Leland (Lee) Morgan decided to spew antisemitic hate and physically assault women in full Nazi uniform downtown,” the statement said. “Nazis and antisemites like Lee have no place in our community, and it is up to all of us to call out this filth when it appears. We hope that Lee’s felony aggravated assault charge dissuades other Nazis from showing their faces in our city.”
