2 who carried restraints into U.S. Capitol are arrested.
U.S. counterterrorism prosecutors are investigating two men who allegedly wore tactical gear and held plastic restraints or zip ties in the U.S. Senate during the breach of the U.S. Capitol last week, the Justice Department announced. The men were arrested Sunday.
Larry Rendell Brock, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, was arrested in Texas and charged with one count of knowingly entering a restricted building and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct, prosecutors said.
Brock identified himself to The New Yorker last week as the man photographed in the well of the Senate chamber wearing a green combat helmet, tactical vest, and black and camouf lage jacket. The photo shows the man holding a white f lex cuff, used by police to restrain subjects, prosecutors said. The man in the photo was recorded apparently exiting the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, DCalif.
Eric Gavelek Munchel, arrested in Tennessee, was charged with the same counts, prosecutors said, after being allegedly photographed climbing over a railing in the Senate gallery carrying plastic restraints, a holstered object on his right hip and a cellphone mounted on his chest.
Information about attorneys was not immediately available for the two men, who did not respond to requests for comment by The Washington Post but have given news interviews explaining their actions.
The cases are being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington and the counterterrorism section of the Justice Department's national security division, with assistance from federal authorities in northern Texas and central Tennessee.
Counterterrorism authorities are involved in a wide range of cases, and their participation speaks more to the focus of the Justice Department's investigation of Wednesday's events than the actions of any particular defendant, analysts noted.
FBI agents are exploring whether some of those who stormed the Capitol intended to do more than disrupt the certification of President-elect Joe Biden's November victory, including whether anyone sought to kill or capture lawmakers or their staffers, The Washington Post has reported.
Their work includes trying to determine the motives of those who had weapons or other gear suggestive of a plot to do physical harm. Zip ties, for example, can be used as handcuffs.
Brock joins a growing list of military veterans who have been arrested and charged in connection with extremist events over the past few years, including the August 2017 White supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va.
Brock, 53, a father of three from Grapevine, Texas, retired from the Air Force as deputy director of its admissions liaison officer program, which oversees personnel who recruit prospective military officers, the Air Force said.
He served as an A-10 pilot, the Air Force said. The New Yorker reported that he said he had served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Online sleuths who linked Munchel to the man in the Senate gallery carrying zip ties said the person photographed wore a patch on his tactical vest in the shape of Tennessee with a thin blue line, a pro-police symbol.