NC man with blue crab logo on hat attacked police officers during Jan. 6 riot, feds say
A 51-year-old Western North Carolina man was arrested and charged Wednesday with assaulting law enforcement officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots, prosecutors said.
Gregory Charles Peck Jr. was charged with one felony count of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers using a deadly or dangerous weapon and one felony count of civil disorder.
Peck also faces several misdemeanor charges, including disorderly conduct offenses and engaging in physical violence on Capitol grounds with a dangerous weapon.
FBI agents arrested Peck in Connelly Springs, a small town west of Hickory, according to a Wednesday press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
According to the release, Peck was seen on a body-worn camera using a flagpole to hit a Metropolitan Police Department officer. Later, Peck sprayed an officer “with an orange substance,” prosecutors allege.
Peck then headed to the Lower West Terrace Tunnel on Capitol grounds, where he grabbed an MPD officer’s jacket collar and pulled, “causing the officer’s head to jerk back.” Others told Peck to let go of the officer, who appeared to have trouble breathing, according to the release.
Members of the U.S. House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack found that former President Donald Trump provoked his supporters to violence through his false allegations of fraud in the 2020 election.
More than 1,488 people have been charged in the breach of the Capitol in the ongoing investigation, the Justice Department said.
