UNC student said he would have protected American flag with his 'dead body' from 'Marxist horde'

A student who defended the American flag at a North Carolina campus Tuesday from an anti-Israel mob, said the protesters would have had to yank the flag from him over his "dead body." 

Anti-Israel protesters targeted the American flag on The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's quad — which had been flying at half-mast after four Charlotte officers were killed in the line of duty. At one point, they replaced it with a Palestinian flag – enraging students and inspiring members from the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity to take action. 

"I don't understand how people can act like this," said Dan Stompel, a junior studying political science at the university. He was one of over a few dozen students who stood up to a mob of hundreds as they tried to desecrate the American flag. Stompel and his fellow classmates held the flag for over an hour until police were able to clear the protest and safely hoist it back on the flagpole. All the while, the students experienced profanity and middle fingers from protesters, along with bottles, rocks, and water being thrown at them.

"We're looking at every direction. If stuff was flying in, we would say, ‘Heads up.’ We would cover each other. We would look out for other people… And it did hurt our arms. It was like an ‘arm day’ [workout] for me that day. There was no gym happening that day afterwards. It was exhausting. It was beautiful moment," Stopel said in an interview with Fox News Digital Wednesday. 

 "It shows that, …based on the people there, nice, normal, strong boys protecting America's flag. There's nothing more patriotic, nothing more genuine, nothing more inspiring than that," he said.