Michigan Business Owner Defends Himself Amid Nazi Accusation

KALAMAZOO (WWJ/AP) - A Kalamazoo business owner says he made bad decisions regarding years-old Nazi-related photos that recently resurfaced on social media, but that he isn't a white supremacist.

Aaron VanArsdale confirmed he is pictured in two photos he posted to his personal Facebook account several years ago. A Lansing man recently shared the photos in a Facebook post that's been shared more than 5,000 times as of Friday.

One photo shows VanArsdale raising his hand in a Nazi salute, and the other photo shows a swastika drawn on his forehead.

The photos have resulted in death threats and messages calling VanArsdale a racist and a Nazi. He said he assumed the photos began circulating this week because of nationwide outrage about a protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, that included white supremacists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members.

"The climate that happened in Virginia over last weekend, I'm getting lumped into that," VanArsdale said. "... Last weekend kicked off and now all of a sudden, people are paying attention. It's a witch hunt now."

The photos have also resulted in calls to boycott his business, Craft Draft 2 Go. The business was vandalized Wednesday with anti-fascist rhetoric. He is closing it for now, citing safety reasons.

VanArsdale said some workers quit because they were either afraid to come into work or didn't want to be associated with assertions of being a white supremacist.

"I don't plan on going back to Kalamazoo," he said. "You're run out of the city."

VanArsdale said the photos were taken in humor but that he believes in equality.

"I'm not a Nazi. I'm not a fascist. I'm not a white supremacist," he said. "My pictures were inappropriate, that's for sure. They were meant in jest but definitely bad humor, bad decision. I own up to that."

© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.