A Arkansas man caught on video hitting a Washington, DC police officer with an American flagpole during the Capitol riots was charged on Thursday.
Peter Francis Stager was accused of obstructing a police officer for allegedly beating a metropolitan police officer who guarded the entrance to the United States Capitol.
Prosecutors allege in a criminal complaint that members of the MAGA mob who broke into the building last Wednesday grabbed the policeman, dragged him down a flight of stairs and forced him to be in a “prone position” before ” forcefully and repeatedly “hit him in the head and body with” various objects “.
The video shows Stager with a large group on the stairs of the Capitol building holding a flagpole. Another video shows Stager hit the policeman while he “remained lying on the stairs”. The FBI said it learned of Stager’s identity from a confidential informant who saw the videos on social media.
“Everyone there is a traitor, a traitor. Death is the only remedy for what is in that building, ”Stager can be heard saying in a second video, according to the criminal complaint.
A second informant confirmed Stager’s involvement, stating that they spoke to Stager after the January 6 uprising and that Stager said it was him in the videos.
The second informant said that Stager said that “he did not know that the man who was hit on the ground by the flagpole was a policeman and that he thought the person who was attacking was Antifa”.
The policeman was easily identifiable, however, because he was wearing a uniform with the words “METROPOLITAN POLICE” on the back, prosecutors said. Stager reportedly told the second informant that he planned to surrender and apologized for assaulting a member of the police.
Stager insisted to the second informant that he was “‘on’ because he received pepper spray or tear gas, which is why he made the comments he made on camera.”
Joshua Black, from Leeds, Alabama, was also charged with violent entry and restricted areas on Thursday after alleging that he wanted to invade the Capitol so he could “beg Jesus’ blood on him”.
“As soon as we found out that Pence had turned on us and that they had officially stolen the election, the crowd went crazy. I mean, it became a crowd. We crossed the gate, ”Black told the authorities, according to a criminal complaint.
Court documents say that Black was one of several protesters who broke into the Senate chambers and was photographed inside with a red MAGA hat and a bloody cheek. Black later admitted to the federal authorities that he was on the Senate floor – and had brought a knife with him.
“Actually, I had a knife on me, but they never … I had a lot of clothes on, it was freezing outside, you know, then. I never, I wasn’t planning on pulling. I only carry a knife because I do, ”explained Black, according to the complaint. “I just, you are not allowed to carry weapons in DC and I don’t like to be helpless.”
Black told authorities that “the spirit of God” wanted him to invade the Senate. He claimed that he almost broke a window inside the Capitol building, but stopped because “this is our home, we don’t do that”.
“I was tempted, I’m not going to lie,” he said. “Because I am very upset. Do you know? They stole my country. ”
John Earl Sullivan, a 26-year-old founder of Insurgence USA, a social justice group created to protest police brutality after George Floyd’s death, was also arrested and charged on Thursday.
Sullivan filmed hours of footage of the riot, which he uploaded to YouTube, including the moment when Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt was shot dead.
According to the criminal complaint, he claimed to the FBI that he was an anti-Trump activist and journalist who was there simply to document the protest. However, prosecutors say he has no press credentials, is not affiliated with any media and was overwhelmed in his own video inciting destruction.
At various points in his video, he helps protesters climb a wall to enter the Capitol, apologizes for breaking a window and tells protesters that they are trying to break another window that he has a knife, the complaint says.
At another time, he is heard saying, “Let’s burn this shit”.
While he films someone trying to break an unidentified door, Sullivan says, “That’s what I’m saying, stop that shit” and later adds, “It would be a fire if someone had revolutionary music and that shit.
“We got that shit. We did it together. Fuck, yes! We are all part of this story, ”he says at another time.
Sullivan, who gave several interviews to major TV networks about what he saw during the rebellion, was accused of entering a restricted building or land, civil unrest and violent entry.
Several MAGA supporters were arrested on Thursday, including a retired Pennsylvania firefighter accused of shooting a fire extinguisher that hit three policemen, a man photographed holding a Confederate flag inside the Capitol and a former school therapist who broke into the Senate Chamber.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Thursday that federal authorities identified more than 200 suspects and arrested more than 100 people. “So we know who you are if you’re out there and the FBI agents come looking for you,” he said.