PHOENIX — Seven months after the leader of the National Socialist Movement, the largest Neo-Nazi group in the United States, was arrested in Chandler for aggravated assault, he is still not facing charges.
The Maricopa County Attorney's Office tells ABC15 prosecutors are still reviewing the case submitted by Chandler police.
New body camera footage released by Chandler PD also reveals the confusion that surrounded the initial investigation and the racism that Burt Colucci used to try and provoke a response from nearby African Americans.
"He was not playing no games," one female victim told officers. "He was ready to kill everybody."
The confrontations took place on April 19 in a Hilton parking lot.
Colucci was in the Valley for the NSM rally over the weekend, which was a brief, uneventful march.
On the Monday morning after, Colucci was apparently getting ready to head back to Florida when he saw a car full of Black men and women in the parking lot.
Colucci admitted to responding officers that he took a pile of trash, he assumed the car had left behind, and threw it on the vehicle.
When the men in the car stepped out, Colucci began hurling a litany of racial slurs at them.
"What was being said back-and-forth during this," asked one Chandler officer.
"It was racial. It was racial as hell," responded Colucci.
Colucci also proudly yelled, "Hey, I’m the leader of the largest Neo-Nazi organization in America."
One male victim, on the receiving end of the slurs, later told officers, "they just changed my whole entire life. I never had nothing like this happen."
Freedom of speech though protects Colucci from hurling slurs and provoking a response by hurling trash. The crime happened when victims and witnesses told police Colucci pointed his gun at the Black men and women.
"He said, 'I’m gonna kill you,' right out the gate," recounted one victim.
"Did he point it at you," asked one officer.
"Yes! He said bring it on... get your gun. I'll [expletive] kill you."
"He was kind of pointing it towards them," said one witness, who was staying at the hotel.
At first, Chandler officers did not know who to believe.
"We do have completely different stories, right?" said one police sergeant talking to Colucci's fellow Neo-Nazi friend.
But all the consistent accounts became impossible to ignore.
"We have a couple of witnesses that we talked to and they gave us information that tipped us over the edge to give us probable cause for this to happen," she the Sgt., motioning to Colucci being led away in handcuffs.
Colucci was booked for aggravated assault that day, but seven months later he has still not been charged for any crimes related to the incident. He also has no release conditions, because MCAO did not file charges.
A spokesperson for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office sent ABC15 the following statement:
"This case is currently under review by our office. All the facts and evidence must be reviewed and in a case where there is extensive recordings, this must be managed by prosecutors while also handling active cases where there are deadlines for motions, hearing, trials and a myriad of other duties. Both the suspect and victims in this case deserve a thorough review of the evidence and we are committed to doing so.
As for a timeline. We furthered the case back to law enforcement on April 22, 2021. They did resubmit in August.
As for the suspect, I don't currently have the information about his arrest or when he was released.
Because this was furthered back to law enforcement for additional investigation, there are currently no charges pending so there would not be any release conditions in place for a suspect."
