A former airborne infantryman was arrested on Friday on charges of making a call to attack protesters on Sunday at the Florida State Capitol.
Daniel Alan Baker, 33, of Tallahassee, Florida, faces a federal indictment involving the transmission of a threat of kidnapping or injury, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.
Prosecutors described Baker as a “radical leftist” who was angry at the January 6 siege of the United States Capitol.
The former soldier received a less than honorable discharge from the army after he went AWOL when his unit was sent to Iraq, according to the Miami Herald.
Prosecutors said Baker, who reported links to a militia group in Syria, planned to violently confront protesters on Capitol Hill on Sunday.
The FBI warned of a substantial risk of violence in protests expected this weekend in all 50 state capitals.
The agency first received a warning in October that Baker was threatening violence and was trying to “recruit and train” others through social media to promote his “anti-government or anti-authority violent extremism ideology,” the complaint said. criminal. He cited several violent threats to white supremacists, fascists, fellow citizens with opposing political views and Baker’s defense of the death of US military officials
“Baker made a call to arms for like-minded individuals to violently confront protesters meeting at the Florida Capitol on Sunday,” federal prosecutors said. “He specifically asked others to join him to surround any protesters and confine them to the Capitol complex using firearms.”
The rallying cry was part of an 18-second video that Baker posted on his YouTube channel showing him printing leaflets with the title: “CALL FOR ARMS 20 JANUARY!” He also said that “armed racists” had planted the Confederate flag on the United States Capitol and that they would continue to deliver an armed coup to all government houses in the country.
“We need ALL FLORIDA RESIDENTS to STAND UP!” the aviator said. “Here in Florida, we must surround the terrorists who attack the Capitol! Let them take the capitol and fight the cops. SURROUND THEM AND HOLD THEM IN. “
Baker was considered a flight hazard in a video audience and is being considered a flight hazard. Its next hearing is January 21.