Active-duty Marine charged with assaulting police officers at US Capitol riot
An active-duty US Marine was arrested Thursday for allegedly participating in the deadly Capitol insurrection and charged with assaulting multiple police officers inside and outside the iconic building during the attack.
Major Christopher Warnagiris, who is stationed at Marine Corps Base Quantico, was arrested in Virginia, according to the Justice Department.
Warnagiris is charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding officers; obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder; and obstruction of justice; among other charges.
He is scheduled for an initial court appearance in federal court later Thursday.
The Justice Department says Warnagiris’ actions were caught on video posted to YouTube, and that he pushed through a line of police officers guarding the East Rotunda doors on January 6, violently entering the Capitol.
He then allegedly then positioned himself in the corner of the doorway and used his body to keep the door open and pull others inside. Prosecutors say Warnagiris resisted when a US Capitol Police officer tried to pull the doors shut.
The FBI had been seeking Warnagiris’ identity, posting his photo among hundreds of others on their website. The Justice Department said in charging documents that a member of the public who worked with Warnagiris in 2019 identified him to the FBI, which led investigators to go to his military command where they interviewed one of Warnagiris’ co-workers, who also said Warnagiris was the man seen in the photos from the FBI’s website.
The US Marine Corps confirmed Warnagiris’s status as an active-duty Marine and said in a statement that it condemns “racial hatred or extremism in the Marine Corps,” adding: “Bigotry and racial extremism run contrary to our core values.”
“Participation with hate or extremist groups of any kind is directly contradictory to the core values of honor, courage, and commitment that we stand for as Marines and isn’t tolerated by the Marine Corps,” Major Melanie Salinas, a USMC spokesperson, said in the statement.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
