Middleburg man faces charge in Charlottesville beating

Tyler Davis, 49, arrested on Virginia warrant

CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – A Middleburg man is in the Clay County Jail awaiting transfer to Charlottesville, Virginia, to face a charge in the August beating of a black man.

Tyler Davis, 49, was arrested Jan. 24 on a Virginia warrant charging him with malicious wounding in the beating of DeAndre Harris, which took place during the white supremacist rally that turned violent.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Davis is a member of the League of the South, a white nationalist neo-Confederate organization based out of Alabama. 

Last week, Clay County deputies said they pulled over Davis, who was driving a Comcast vehicle, on Buggy Whip Trail near his Middleburg home and arrested him.

According to his arrest report, Davis is employed at a Comcast office in Orange Park. 

Employees at the office were not allowed to make unauthorized comments, but their faces portrayed shock and disbelief when News4Jax showed them the arrest report on Thursday. 

Davis' wife did not answer the door when News4Jax stopped by their home. But one of Davis' tenants, who did not wish to be identified, said there are two sides to every story.

"Everyone deserves their fair side of the story to be told, their fair side of videos. Everybody has a camera now in their phone, so let's be fair," the tenant said. "He's a good man."

Davis' tenant said that, although the violence that played out in Charlottesville was tragic, "We're allowed to protest. It's guaranteed by the Constitution. We have a right to peaceful protest."

Davis is the fourth person to be arrested in connection with the Aug. 12 assault of Harris.

Harris was beaten by six men in an attack in a parking garage next to the police headquarters during the Unite the Right rally. Heather Heyer, 32, was killed in a separate incident when a car plowed into a group of counterprotesters.

Harris, 20, was later accused of injuring a white nationalist the same day that he was beaten. He turned himself in on a charge of unlawful wounding and was released on bond, the Charlottesville Police Department said.

There's no timetable on when Davis will be returned to Virginia to stand trial. 

If convicted of the malicious wounding charge, Davis could spend up to 20 years in a Virginia prison. 


About the Authors:

Award-winning broadcast and multimedia journalist with 20 years experience.

Scott is a multi-Emmy Award Winning Anchor and Reporter, who also hosts the “Going Ringside With The Local Station” Podcast. Scott has been a journalist for 25 years, covering stories including six presidential elections, multiple space shuttle launches and dozens of high-profile murder trials.