Displaying items by tag: craig spaulding
Report: South Knoxville white supremacist committed suicide while showing child how to shoot a handgun
Hard Knox Wire: Racist leader’s death in Knoxville was by suicide
The Knox County Sheriff’s Office concluded that Craig Spaulding, 33, took his own life on April 8 on Belt Road in South Knox County.
The death, originally reported by Hellbender Press via Hard Knox Wire, was initially attributed to an accidental gunshot wound.
“Spaulding was a self-described white nationalist, which means he was a member of a group of militant white men and women who espouse white supremacy and advocate enforced racial segregation,” Hard Knox Wire reported.
He regularly organized groups to spew hate at people participating in LGBTQ or Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
“White supremacists under Spaulding’s leadership have been operating in the area and traveling to events outside of East Tennessee for several years, such as the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017.”
Hard Knox Wire reported that Spaulding was showing a son of a friend how to shoot when he abruptly and purposefully shot himself in the head with a .25 caliber Ruger. His blood-alcohol content at the time was approaching three times the legal limit, according to autopsy reports.
Hard Knox Wire: Renowned white supremacist killed by accidental headshot in South Knox
Well-known Knoxville white supremacist and ‘cultured thug’ dies of apparent accidental gunshot wound to head
Originally published by Hard Knox Wire
A Knoxville man who earned widespread notoriety as a leader in the violent white nationalist movement died last week after he was shot in the head in South Knox County.
Spaulding was among eight white supremacists who were arrested in the summer of 2020 during a Black Lives Matter protest in Rogersville.
Follow the latest Knoxville crime and justice news from Hard Knox Wire.