This torch-wielding protester renamed himself after action-video game character Duke Nukem

Show Caption Hide Caption Alt-right protestors carry torches to Univ. of Virginia A day before a scheduled alt-right demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia, protestors marched with torches at the University of Virginia. According to local reports, several people were injured during the demonstration.

Long before he marched alongside neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville, Ted Landrum wanted to change his name ahead of his approaching nuptials.

It was 2012 and his friends kept telling him he shared a strong resemblance to action-video-game star Duke Nukem: A cigar-smoking ladies man with guns and muscles.

So he changed his name to Ted Von Nukem. The "Von" an ode to his German heritage and "Nukem" to the video game character. It was a joint-decision with his now-wife of nearly four years, who also carries the last name. His given "Landrum" name, he said, had no importance to him because it borrowed from a past boyfriend of his mom.

Von Nukem appears in one of the more circulated photos of the bloody weekend in Charlottesville, an image of him amid a sea of torch-wielding white supremacists. He said he traveled to Charlottesville to protest the removal of the city's Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee statue.

Landrum, a self-described "Trump Republican," said he's more of a libertarian, but both he and his wife are registered Republicans. He added he doesn't identify with neo-Nazis and white supremacists, but won't "counter-signal against them."

After the photo went public, he was identified by a former classmate from his home state of Missouri, who remembered him as "Teddy Landrum."

Von Nukem, 29, fits the age group of a Duke Nukem fan, but said he played the 90's video game just a little bit growing up. Although he does do an impression of one of Nukem's many catchphrases: "Hail to the king, baby."

When asked if he identifies with the character, he said, "In that I'm a badass," before adding, "I need to get more swole so that I can further identify with him. But I style my hair differently than he does and I don't like cigars."

Von Nukem described his family as "more traditional-style." The couple lives in Missouri and has three children ages two months, two and three. He helps train sales people all over the country under his company AnCap, Inc., short for "anarcho-capitalism."

Von Nukem describes his wife as "more hardcore" and "further to the right" than him. But she didn't go to Charlottesville.

"Politics is violence. Period. End of story. And women shouldn't be involved in violence," he said. "They should leave that to the people who do violence best, which are the men."

There were also the children to consider.

"If something were to happen to me, that would be rather bad," he said, "but if something were to happen to both us, that would be catastrophic for our children."

Von Nukem called some coverage of the Charlottesville situation "fake news," including coverage of the car that rammed into a group of protesters, killing one and injuring more than a dozen others. He said James Alex Fields Jr., the 20-year-old accused of being the driver, is not a terrorist. He claimed a group of men were trying to break into Fields' car and "he freaked out and pushed the gas pedal."

The crowd should have already been dispersed by police.

"Any blood that was spilled right there is on (the counter protesters') hands," he said. "We had permits. We just came there to speak our mind and go home."

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