Two racist skinheads tied to a group called the American Nazis have been arrested by the Pasco County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office in connection with stabbings that left one victim dead and the other injured.

According to victim Patricia Wells, who was stabbed in the face and hands, her attacker entered her trailer shortly after midnight on March 23, 2006.  Wells feigned death while the gas mask-wearing assailant attacked a friend of her son, who later died of stab wounds sustained as he tried to escape.

Hours later, police became engaged in a standoff with a man in an adjacent house trailer flying Nazi flags and known to police as a hangout for a local group of neo-Nazis.  Wells, who is white, told police that she believed her attacker came from the neighboring trailer due to past, racially-driven, altercations between her boyfriend, who is black, and people frequenting the trailer.

Without incident, Pasco County authorities arrested John A. Ditullio, 20, who had been inside the trailer throughout the standoff.  Ditullio wore an American Nazis t-shirt as he was escorted to a police cruiser.  Police later arrested Shawn A. Plott, 33, who lived at the trailer and who, according to Ditullio, said that he had “taken care of them [the victims] forever.”  Both were arrested on outstanding warrants on separate charges and neither has been indicted in the stabbings. 

Police found a gas mask inside the Nazi trailer; however, both Ditullio and Plott have said they had nothing to do with the stabbing incident.

The American Nazis, whose activities have centered around the trailer in New Port Richey, are a local white supremacist group led by Brian “Zero” Buckley, who as early as 1996 was heading a group of racist skinheads .  The group, according to police, had swastikas tattooed on their heads and were ordered by Buckley to shoot police during a response to a domestic disturbance call. 

Buckley has a criminal history that includes felony convictions for false imprisonment, aggravated battery, and introduction of drugs and weapons into prison.  He may have a connection to the more well known white supremacist group Aryan Nations, because the leather vest he commonly wears bears the crest of that group.