Tallahassee white supremacist taken away in handcuffs after FBI search

Jordan Jereb was led away in handcuffs from his mother’s Tallahassee home Wednesday after the FBI searched for evidence in connection with misinformation he gave regarding the shooter in last month's Parkland school massacre.

Jereb was arrested on charges of violation of probation by the Florida Department of Corrections Probation office. He was on probation for a 2016 charge of extortion by threats to which he pleaded no contest in December of that year.

After Nikolas Cruz opened fire inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, killing 17 people, Jereb said Cruz had done paramilitary training with the white nationalist group Jereb leads.

Previous coverage: Local law enforcement: No ties between militia and Florida high school shooter

The claims set off a media firestorm that Cruz had ties to Jereb's Tallahassee-based Republic of Florida militia. However, the Leon County Sheriff’s Office told the Tallahassee Democrat it could find no connection between Jereb and Cruz.

Jereb later walked back the claims he made to the Anti-Defamation League and others citing lack of sleep and confusion over names, but not before the story was picked up by the Associated Press and then in news publications and outlets around the world.

Letter from the Editor: Debunking the national storyline is one reason #LocalJournalismMatters

At one point Wednesday, nearly a dozen federal, state and local law enforcement vehicles were at the Park View Drive home owned by Jereb’s mother. The home is in the Piney Z Plantation neighborhood in east Tallahassee.

At about 1:30 p.m. about a half-dozen local, state and federal law enforcement officers removed several bagged items of evidence, including what appeared to be a computer tower wrapped in plastic.

A short time later, Jereb, 22, was taken away in handcuffs in a Tallahassee Police vehicle.

As he was being put into a TPD cruiser, Jereb yelled to TV news cameras "I didn't do anything wrong. I'm a good person," according to the local CBS affiliate.

Jereb, the self-proclaimed leader of the ROF and its dozen or so members, has a history of arrests and involuntary commitments for mental health problems.

A self-described "right-wing extremist nut," Jereb faced charges in 2016 after threatening a high-ranking member of Gov. Rick Scott's staff. He is known to ride his bike through neighborhoods wearing paramilitary garb and stand at the side of the road with a Republic of Florida flag.

Related story: 'Extremist nut' arrested after threatening Gov. Rick Scott staffer

Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahassee.com or follow @KarlEtters on Twitter.