Exclusive: Violent 'Cville Antifa' charged with attempted knife-murder

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Bloomington, Indiana – A violent ‘Antifa’ who attempted to crush skulls with a metal pipe during 2017’s infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, has been positively identified.

The individual is currently facing charges of attempted knife murder in Indiana seven years later, providing further insight into the nature of Cville counter-protestors who have largely dodged accountability for their crimes.

Ryan Allan Johnson, aka “Nish,” of Bloomington, Indiana. Photo: Bloomington Police Department, Justice Report.

Thanks to a credible tip submitted anonymously to the Justice Report, counter-extremist researchers were able to confidently name 38-year-old Ryan Allan Johnson as the sneering militant behind a string of savage attacks against unarmed protestors on August 12th, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Johnson—a former lead chef for the upscale cafe and nightclub, FARMbloomington—made local headlines in 2023 after he was arrested and charged for a New Year’s Day stabbing attack in an alleyway just blocks from his workplace. At the time, his involvement in the anti-White extremist movement, commonly referred to as “Antifa,” remained unknown.

According to reports, the 5’9″, 290lb anarcho-communist had grown agitated after a man allegedly “touched his hair” without permission while walking to a local bar. The victim was then said to have apologized to Johnson, but hours later, the two would run into each other again in a nearby alleyway.

Ryan Allan Johnson is now facing attempted murder charges after police say he stabbed a NYE reveler in 2023. Johnson is linked to multiple acts of antifascist street violence throughout 2017’s Unite the Right in Charlottesville, Virginia. Collage: Justice Report, Bloomingtonian.

A press release from Captain Ryan Pedigo of the Bloomington Police Department stated that Johnson physically bumped into his 32-year-old victim, stabbed him, and then walked away. “The victim immediately began feeling pain in his abdomen and lifted his shirt, where he observed a significant wound and realized that he had been stabbed,” it continued.

Thanks to the help of local bystanders, 911 was called, and the unnamed victim survived the attack only after emergency surgery. Police say Johnson successfully eluded arrest for days.

Still, investigators were finally able to locate him sitting in a vehicle just a few blocks south of his current home address. For the very serious crime of nearly killing a man over a petty slight, the antifascist Ryan Allan Johnson was charged with premeditated Attempted Murder, Aggravated Battery, and Battery with a Deadly Weapon, all of which are felonies.

Circuit Court Judge Christine Talley Haseman reportedly found Johnson’s charges so repugnant at the time that she refused to release him from jail. During that hearing, Johnson complained about meeting “exceptionally high” bail amounts and argued he needed to continue working to pay for legal representation.

Johnson, a former lead chef at Bloomington’s FARMBloomington restaurant run by David Orr, was pictured beating, striking, and nearly killing protestors at UTR in 2017. Now, he’s facing attempted murder charges while working at a medical device recycling plant on Bloomington’s west side. Collage: Justice Report, Facebook.

Judge Haseman ultimately sided with prosecutors in the matter. Since then, Johnson has been released from jail and continues to work at a Cook Incorporated plant on North Curry Pike in Bloomington.

If convicted, Johnson faces the prospect of years behind bars. Despite this, the case has been held up in Monroe County Circuit Court. Public records surrounding the incident indicate a jury trial has been delayed for two whole years, denying the public justice at a time when law and order are widely considered one of the top political issues in America today.

An individual close to the case advised the Justice Report that Johnson appeared to be stalling. Under the advice of his defense counsel, the Bloomington-based attorney Marla Thomas, Johnson may be scurrying to complete a so-called “substance abuse treatment” program to curry favor with the judge.

Bloomington police cordon off the alleyway where Ryan Allan Johnson was alleged to have stabbed a man over a petty slight during the early hours of January 1st, 2023. Johnson, a former chef for the well-to-do FARMBloomington, was arrested days later during a traffic stop. Photo: Bloomingtonian.

An independent investigation of Johnson’s criminal record reveals Johnson is a habitual public menace. Since 2007, the portly anarchist has been arrested for drug possession, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence, and even once for criminal mischief in 2017.

At the time of press, it is currently unknown if the
Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office is aware of Johnson’s history of violent anti-White extremism or whether they plan to mention it at all. However, failure to bring up these poignant facts in court could negatively affect the state’s ability to obtain equitable justice and increase the chance of a mere slap on the wrist.

This story is developing, and the Justice Report will continue to provide updates as they become available. Do you know Ryan Allan Johnson of Bloomington, Indiana? Send information to the JR anonymous tipline at [email protected].

‘8/12/17‘

Johnson was just one among hundreds of nationwide black bloc Antifa who had crossed state lines with the express desire to violently shut down 2017’s Unite the Right under the banner of militant “anti-racism.”

Ryan Allan Johnson (right) was pictured savagely beating protestors in 2017’s Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville. Johnson can be seen participating in an attack alongside DeAndre Harris and Corey Long, who ambushed former League of the South activist Harold Ray Crews, nearly killing him. Photo:

His distinct pear-shaped body and toothy smile had been captured in dozens of photos and videos from the infamous protest, in which activists sought to peaceably raise awareness of the removal of a Confederate monument from the grounds of UVA.

Much of this years-old content depicts Johnson savagely beating attendees, namely former League of the South member Harold Ray Crews, with an improvised deadly weapon on August 12th, 2017.

The blue-eyed extremist was captured on film stalking and harassing protestors for blocks before joining other Antifa—namely DeAndre Harris and the flamethrower-wielding Corey Long—in a parking lot ambush on Cville’s Market Street. There, he would be filmed slamming Crews with what appears to be a metal pipe wrapped in athletic tape several times.

A video compilation of attacks against Harold Ray Crews committed by Ryan Allan Johnson. Video: Buzzfeed, Justice Report.

Live stream video captured Johnson emerging from a crowd to deliver a follow-up blow to Crews, this time directly to the back of his skull, sending the unarmed protestor careening to the ground.

Counter-extremist researchers who watched the video confirmed that the attack could have proven fatal under the right circumstances, as Crews had already sustained blows from a different antifascist, DeAndre Harris, moments earlier.

Assault charges would eventually be levied against Harris, the Black Antifa who struck targets with a mag light throughout the event. Despite this, Harris would later be acquitted, with his lawyer, S. Lee Merrit, instead blaming several unidentified “White counterprotesters” for the assault on Crews, of which Johnson can now be named.

Ryan Allan Johnson of Bloomington, Indiana, crossed state lines with a change of clothes to engage in violence against First Amendment-protected protestors. His face has been published in mainstream media outlets, including the Guardian and the NYT. He can be seen here grinning wildly as a man is beaten senseless for his political opinion. Photo:

In addition to the parking lot attack, a sneering and smiling Johnson can also be seen in the background of several high-resolution photos from Cville. One such photo depicts Johnson grinning from ear to ear as an incapacitated man is kicked, stomped, and clubbed on the ground by a masked comrade.

Wearing a backpack, photos suggest Johnson had played a key role in disrupting Unite the Right. Before the assault on Crews, Johnson had been photographed participating in an Antifa “barricade” on Market Street, where he and dozens of militants proceeded to use hammers, clubs, and sticks to ambush League of the South members seeking to peacefully enter the protest grounds at Lee Park.

After delivering several attacks of his own, Johnson appears to have retreated somewhere and changed his clothes, a common tactic of black-bloc terrorists used to evade police identification and arrest.

Before ambushing protestors in front of the parking lot, Ryan Allan Johnson was also pictured attacking people on Market Street. He would quickly change his clothes after participating, a common tactic Antifa deploys to escape police identification and arrest. Photo: Edu Bayer for *The New York Times*

It could only be deduced that Johnson—now wearing a hooded jacket during the Virginian August heat—deliberately chose these garments with the intent to engage in (and get away with) criminal activity.

Since the events of UTR, Johnson has taken great care to scrub his social media presence. However, traces of his identity can still be found lingering on the internet. An analysis of Facebook and message board posts reveals Johnson, under the pseudonym “Nish” or “Nysh,” was heavily involved with the Belegarth Medieval Combat Society, a live-action role-playing (LARP) community, and was a lead organizer for the Bloomington chapter “Rhovanion.”

Alarmingly, some of Johnson’s posts made to a Belegarth-linked message board reveal he was a master weaponsmith for the group, specializing in the use and creation of wooden, PVC, and metal weapons covered in tape—reminiscent of the ones he employed at UTR.

Ryan Allan Johnson was a part of the Belegarth Medieval Combat Society, where he was a local Bloomington organizer and master weaponsmith. He likely drew on his experience in melee weapons and armed combat from this community to inflict near-fatal blows at Unite the Right. Photo: “Nyshbucket,” Justice Report.

‘Very fine people’

Despite launching a wide array of near-fatal attacks against lawful demonstrators, no known criminal investigation was ever pursued into the activities of Ryan Allan Johnson.

Commentators and veterans of UTR have often pointed to brazen assaults by ‘Antifa’ as serious violent crimes and, in some cases, political terrorism. In the case of Harold Ray Crews, many have considered his victimization an act of attempted murder that the State of Virginia had willfully overlooked.

Ryan Allan Johnson is seen slamming a metal rod wrapped in athletic tape to the back of the head of an unaware Harold Ray Crews, a blow that narrowly could have killed him under different circumstances. Photo: Buzzfeed live stream, Justice Report.

Instead, Albemarle County prosecutors have been notoriously selective with who and what they set their legal eye upon. Since 2017, officials have moved mountains to extradite and convict non-violent right-wingers under draconian, Klan-era “intimidation” statutes, as with the case of Augustus Invictus, Jacob Dix, Patriot Front’s Thomas Rousseau, and others, for allegedly burning a tiki torch in public.

Some have speculated that had authorities locked away Antifa—believed to have committed a bulk of the violence during UTR—many subsequent crimes could have been avoided elsewhere in the United States. No better example exists than Alexander Stokes Contompasis, an unhinged antifascist “journalist” who committed numerous assaults against his perceived political opposition at Cville.

Like Ryan Allan Johnson, Contompasis walked free from UTR, dodging accountability for his attacks. He would then go on to commit an assault alongside other Antifa at a Baptist Church in Troy, New York, during a 2020 incident that some have described as an anarcho-communist terrorist attack.

Violent convicted criminal and Antifa activist Alexander Stokes Contompasis was present at Unite the Right and carried out numerous attacks—including a case of attempted murder—in the following years. In 2017, this now convicted knifeman found a safe haven among Cville’s liberal elite, who held an emergency mass to “denounce racism” on August 11th. Photo: OurStoryCville.

Then, in November of 2022, Contompasis maliciously targeted and stabbed two men in front of the New York State Capitol building in Albany, NY, merely for believing his victims were supporters of President Donald Trump. For his direct role in carrying out politically motivated violence, a jury found Contompasis guilty, landing him a 20-year bid in the New York State prison system.

At the time, Supreme Court Justice Roger McDonough said of the would-be Antifa killer that he believed he was “ready, willing, and able to inflict violence on political opponents.”

“He violently, brutally stabbed political opponents of his…one of whom he eviscerated,” said McDonough. “This wasn’t just a simple stab or an accidental stab or a ‘poke’ as the defendant attempted to describe it in his testimony. These were violent knife attacks.”

Many have remained critical of the handling of Unite the Right by local, state, and federal authorities. Activist, UTR veteran, and self-professed “pro-White advocate” Nathan Damigo referred to antifascist violence in 2017 as akin to terrorism, which should have been dealt with years prior.

Ryan Allan Johnson can be seen in dozens of highly publicized photos of 2017’s Unite the Right, including this one, where his distinct yellow-strapped backpack and hood appear in the crowd. Photo: Sean Rayford

“So many of those who attacked us at UTR have gone on to commit various acts of terrorism that it would be funny had they not gotten away with what they did in Charlottesville,” professed Damigo in a post to his official Telegram. “Perhaps if they were held accountable then, it would have stopped a great deal of violence that occurred in the preceding years.”

In a request for comment on the discovery, the Justice Report reached out to Michael Hill, former President of the League of the South and current President of the Southern Nationalist League. Like Damigo, Hill didn’t mince words, referring to Johnson’s violent acts as indicative of a greater trend of antifascist “domestic terrorism” enabled by the state.

“The real conspiracy in Charlottesville in 2017 was one hatched and carried out by the left to deprive American citizens of their First Amendment rights of free speech and freedom of assembly,” he said to the Justice Report. “Complicit in this conspiracy were both the Charlottesville city government and the government of the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

“I was both a participant in and a witness to many of the events of that day. The Heaphy Report, commissioned by the city of Charlottesville…correctly laid blame for the disturbances of 12 August 2017 at the feet of the authorities,” he continued. “It is past time that the left’s criminal activity at the Unite the Right rally was exposed and prosecuted as domestic terrorism. Let the truth of Charlottesville finally be told.”

Antifascists, or “Antifa” for short, is a loosely affiliated movement of anti-White extremists who often engage in violence, doxing, intimidation, and other politically motivated crimes.

Their members thrive in anonymity, but counter-extremist research has unmasked dozens of Antifa in recent years, including high school teachers, artists, former boogaloo boys, journalists, mental health advocates, FBI informants, alleged rapists, members of the Israeli Defense Forces, a US Secret Service Agent, and even a regional coordinator for the ADL.

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