Sam Woodward, a former member of the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, is set to stand trial for the murder of his former high school classmate Blaze Bernstein. The killing, which occurred in January 2018, brought international attention to the far-right extremist organisation and highlighted a wave of violence by American white nationalists.
Bernstein, a gay Jewish pre-med student at the University of Pennsylvania, was home on winter break when he met Woodward at Borrego Park in Lake Forest, Orange County. The two had reconnected through the dating app Tinder. Bernstein's body was discovered a week later with 19 stab wounds in a shallow grave.
Investigators found a knife with Bernstein's blood in Woodward's room and bloodstains in his car. Woodward initially claimed that Bernstein had tried to kiss him and that he found homosexuality “disgusting”. In late 2018, hate crime enhancements were added to the charges after ProPublica reported on Woodward's anti-Jewish posts on the Atomwaffen Division's internal Discord server.
Woodward's involvement with far-right extremism began online, where he used the handle “Saboteur” on the iFunny app. He later joined Vanguard America and then the Atomwaffen Division, a group that advocates armed white nationalist insurrection. Woodward participated in firearms training with the group's Texas cell and visited its ideologue, James Mason, in Denver. The Atomwaffen Division has been linked to five deaths, including two members killed in Florida and a double murder in Virginia.
