A man who was photographed wearing a sweatshirt that read “Camp Auschwitz” while inside the Capitol last week was arrested in Newport News, Virginia, on Wednesday morning in connection with the Capitol riot, according to two police officers .
The man, Robert Keith Packer, had been seen on the Capitol grounds in several photos and his black sweatshirt, with a reference to the Nazi death camp and a skull, had caused widespread outrage. The media had already identified Mr. Packer based on reports from people who knew him.
Mr. Packer’s sweatshirt also included the phrase “Work brings freedom”, which is an approximate translation of “Arbeit macht frei”. The German words were welded in an iron arch that stood over one of the extermination camp gates, where more than 1.1 million people were killed during World War II.
The top federal prosecutor in Washington said this week that more than 70 people linked to the Capitol chaos had already been charged with crimes and that he expected “hundreds” to be eventually charged. Prosecutors were considering opening a series of charges against the protesters, including seditious conspiracy, murder and trespassing. Michael Sherwin, the District Attorney for the District of Columbia, said investigators had already identified at least 170 people who allegedly committed crimes.