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Man Who Claimed He Was Stabbed For ‘Neo-Nazi’ Haircut In Colorado Was Lying

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Ian Miles Cheong Contributor
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The man who claims he was stabbed for being mistaken for a neo-nazi now says he made it all up.

On Monday, Sheridan Police Department informed BuzzFeed that they reinterviewed him with evidence that the attack never took place. He confessed to making up the entire story, which went viral on social media and in the national news.  Police say they became suspicious of his account because surveillance video did not match up his version of the events.

Instead, footage shows that Witt purchased a small knife before the alleged attack. Witt says he accidentally cut himself with the knife and made up the story about being assaulted. He has been charged with falsely reporting to authorities.

Witt has not responded to the Daily Caller for comment.

Original post follows:

A Colorado mas was stabbed this week after he was mistaken for a neo-Nazi due to his haircut. His short-top, cropped-sides haircut, which is largely popular among millennials, marked him as a target for violence.

26-year-old Joshua Witt’s photographs of his injuries quickly went viral on Facebook on Saturday, almost a week after the violent events at Charlottesville. Speaking to the New York Post, Witt said that a member of Antifa, the violent left-wing movement dubbed by President Trump as the “alt-left,” confused him for a white supremacist.

Sooooooo apparently I look like a neo-nazi and got stabbed for it … luckily I put my hands up to stop it so he only…

Posted by Joshua Witt on Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Witt told the Post that he had pulled into the parking lot at the Steak n’ Shake for a milkshake in Sheridan, Co. when a man armed with a knife approached his vehicle and asked him if he was a neo-Nazi.

“All I hear is, ‘Are you one of them neo-Nazis’ as this dude is winging a knife up over my car door at me,” said Witt to the newspaper. “I threw my hands up and once the knife kind of hit, I dived into the car and shut the door and watched him run off west, behind my car.”

Witt says that he believes the attacker was aiming for his head.

The distraught man stated on Facebook that he has no identifying markers like tattoos that would mark him as a neo-Nazi. A quick glimpse at his now-viral post shows responses from puzzled friends who suggested that he may have been marked because of his haircut, which is similar to Richard Spencer’s. It’s worth noting that Brad Pitt sports the same haircut in the 2014 film, “Fury,” in which he plays a U.S. Army sergeant trapped behind Nazi-occupied territory in a tank.

Witt says he called the police to report the incident, who responded within five minutes of him calling. He believes that his attacker remains at large.

Further digging into Witt’s Facebook profile contains no mention of politics.

The Daily Caller reached out to Witt for comment but he did not respond by the time of publication.

Update 8/28/17: This post has been updated with new information. 

Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter and on Facebook.