A police officer in North Carolina was arrested on Thursday for his alleged actions during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. John Carl and other rioters surrounded police officers near a set of stairs leading to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to a criminal complaint. When officers tried to move Carl back, he resisted and grabbed an officer’s baton, federal prosecutors said. Carl breached the Capitol that afternoon and entered the office of Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore. He told a friend that police officers prevented further entry into the building, prosecutors said, so he exited the Capitol and later returned to his North Carolina home. A few years later, Carl became a police officer in Pinetops, North Carolina. However, Carl was suspended from his job after his arrest, Pinetops’s outside attorney, J. Brian Pridgen, said in a statement to The Washington Post.
Carl, 41, was charged with a felony count of civil disorder and misdemeanors of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, picketing and demonstrating in a Capitol building. If convicted of the felony, he could be sentenced to up to five years in prison. Body-camera footage from the D.C. police showed Carl, wearing a maroon and gray jacket and a mask, standing in front of police officers with other rioters on the west side of the Capitol, prosecutors said. The footage showed Carl raising his arms to push back against officers’ attempts to move him and grabbing an officer’s arm and baton. More than two years later, Carl graduated from an eastern North Carolina community college’s basic law enforcement training, according to a news release from the college. In a statement, Pridgen mentioned that the Pinetops Police Department hired Carl on June 5, 2023, and at the time of his hiring and throughout his employment, they were unaware of any potential involvement he may have had in the riot.
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