An Arkansas man captured in a video hitting a Washington, DC police officer with a U.S. flagpole during Capitol riots was charged Thursday.
Peter Francis Stager has been accused of obstructing a police officer for allegedly beating a Metropolitan Police officer guarding an entrance to the U.S. Capitol.
Prosecutors allege in a criminal complaint that members of the MAGA mob who broke into the building last Wednesday grabbed the officer, dragged him down a flight of stairs and forced him into a “prone position” before hitting him “forcefully and repeatedly” in the head and body with “various objects.”
Video footage shows Stager with a large group on the stairs of the Capitol building and holding a flagpole. Another video shows Stager hitting the agent as he “remained prone to the stairs.” The FBI said they learned of Stager’s identity from a confidential informant who saw the videos on social media.
“Everyone there is a treacherous traitor. Death is the only remedy for what is in this building, “Stager can be heard in a second video: according to the criminal complaint.
A second informant confirmed Stager’s involvement, claiming that they had spoken to Stager after the January 6 uprising and Stager said it was him in the videos.
The second informant said Stager stated that “he did not know that the man who was hit on the ground with the flagpole was a policeman and that he believed the person who was hit was Antifa.”
However, the officer was easily identifiable as he was wearing a uniform with the words “METROPOLITAN POLICE” on his back, prosecutors said. Stager allegedly told the second informant that he planned to surrender and apologized for assaulting a member of law enforcement.
Stager insisted to the second informant that he was “connected” so that it would not be sprinkled with pepper or tear gas and therefore made the comments he made to the camera. ”
Joshua Black, of Leeds, Alabama, was also charged Thursday with violent entry and entry into restricted grounds after claiming he wanted to assault the Capitol in order to “defend the blood of Jesus for it.”
“Once we learned that Pence turned against us and that the elections had been stolen as officially, people went crazy. I mean, he became a crowd. We walked through the door,” Black said in a video of YouTube, according to a criminal complaint.
Judicial documents say Black was one of the riot police who stormed Senate chambers and was photographed inside with a red MAGA hat and a bloodied cheek. Black later admitted he was on the Senate floor and had brought a knife with him.
“In fact, I had a knife on me, but never … I had too many clothes on, it was freezing out there. I never thought of throwing it away. I only carry a knife because yes, ”explained Black, according to the complaint. “You’re just not allowed to carry guns to DC and I don’t like being helpless.”
Black said in the YouTube video that “the spirit of God” wanted him to storm the Senate. He claimed he almost broke a window inside the Capitol building, but stopped because “this is our house, we don’t act like that.”
“I was tempted not to lie,” he said. “Because I’m pretty upset. You know? They stole my country. ”
John Earl Sullivan, a founder of Insurgence USA, a 26-year-old social justice group set up to protest police brutality following the death of George Floyd, was also arrested and charged Thursday.
Sullivan filmed hours of filming during the riot, which he posted on YouTube, including the time Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot.
According to the criminal complaint, he told the FBI that he was an anti-trump activist and journalist who was simply there to document the protest. However, prosecutors say he has no press credentials, is not affiliated with any media and was in his own video demanding the destruction.
At various points in his video, he helps the rioters climb a wall to enter the Capitol, apologizes for breaking a window, and tells the rioters that they are trying to break another window that has a knife, according to the complaint.
At another time, he is heard to say, “We burn that shit.”
While filming someone trying to walk through an unmarked door, Sullivan says, “That’s what I’m saying, break that shit,” and then adds, “It would be fire if someone had revolutionary music and shit.”
“It simply came to our notice then. We did it together. Damn, yes! We are all part of this story, ”he says at another time.
Sullivan, who gave several interviews to major television stations about what he saw during the riot, has been charged with entering a restricted building or land, civil unrest and violent entry.
A number of MAGA supporters were arrested Thursday, including a retired Pennsylvania firefighter accused of throwing a fire extinguisher at three police officers, a man photographed with a Confederate flag inside the Capitol and a former school therapist who stormed the Senate House .
FBI Director Christopher Wray said Thursday that federal authorities have identified more than 200 suspects and arrested more than 100 people. “So we know who you are if you’re there and FBI agents will come to see you,” he said.