WASHINGTON — A man who carried a tiki torch during the racist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 has now been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Tyler Bradley Dykes, a former Marine who served several months in prison after a state grand jury charged him in connection with the racist event in Charlottesville, where far-right extremists chanted “You will not replace us” as well as the Nazi slogan “Blood and soil.” In Virginia, burning objects with the intent to intimidate is a crime.
An FBI affidavit says that Dykes was referred to by online sleuths as #graygoose, and was wearing “a gray puffer jacket, a gray, textured gaitor, and a tan Adidas baseball hat with black stripe running through the adjustable band.” A FBI tipster said in late 2021 that Dykes said he went into the Capitol as other rioters were beating up officers, and that he was still in the military at the time. A confidential human source then provided open-source information supporting the identification.
Video, the feds said, showed that Dykes “stole a riot shield from law enforcement and raised it over his head to establish sole possession of the item.”
Dykes faces an array of misdemeanors as well as felonies, including obstructing, impeding or interfering with officers performing their duties. A judge ordered him temporarily detained and set a detention hearing for Wednesday.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
